


Rogue's Status

by DoctorMerlinReid



Series: Gone Rogue [1]
Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Child Abuse, Criminal Wally West, Criminals live in shades of grey, M/M, Really really slow burn, Rogue Wally West, Slow Burn, The Light is pure evil, Wally Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-04-08 04:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 66
Words: 307,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14097558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorMerlinReid/pseuds/DoctorMerlinReid
Summary: Wally's just a regular metahuman street kid trying to survive from day to day when he makes the stupid decision of stealing from a Rogue. It's not long before he meets them again in an alleyway, beaten and broken. The Rogues take Wally in and make him one of their own. What happens when the Rogue's newest member runs into the Young Justice League?





	1. First Encounter

WWWWWW

_Wally winced slightly and shifted. Experimental wiggling of his fingers and toes told him that they weren't broken, but the skin seemed bruised in a few places. Attempting to sit up brought a fiery pain to his abdomen, so he stopped trying that in a moment in favor of moving his head. A small bolt of pain spread out from his temples, but that wasn't anything new. A little headache he could deal with. Lifting his head, he concluded that he probably wasn't concussed, but the blood gushing out of his nose and the throbbing pain settled at the bridge of said nose led Wally to the conclusion that he probably had a broken nose. He sighed softly, wincing as the air blew through his nose and caused a spurt of pain. At the rate he got his nose broken, he would end up having a crooked lump there instead of an actual nose._

_After a moment of adjusting to the pain, Wally again made the effort to sit up. He had figured out that his ribs were most likely broken, or, if not, then badly bruised. He resisted the urge to sigh again, knowing that it would only cause more pain. Wally knew that fathers weren't supposed to hurt their sons. He knew that mothers were supposed to at least pretend to care, but he still didn't think that they were bad people. He would even go so far as to say that he loved his parents. They were the only people he really knew and they said that they loved him sometimes. They told him that they were the only people who would ever put up with him and take care of him and that was the same thing, right?_

_Besides, it wasn't like the kids at school liked Wally. Most eighth graders didn't like nine year olds in their grade. Evidently they found it offensive that someone so young could end up in the same grade as them. It didn't help that Wally had unruly ginger hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes. It only gave them an excuse to call him a soulless freak. It didn't matter that no one at school liked him, Wally told himself firmly, forcing himself to stand up from the living room carpet where his father had left him after his latest 'lesson'. He could always come home where his parents loved him. Right? That's all that's supposed to matter. As long as your parents love you, you're alright. Wally nodded to himself confidently, regretting it immediately after the pulsing pain took over his consciousness for a second. Whatever he had done this time to be taught a lesson must have been pretty bad for his dad to have beaten him up this much._

_Wally was never quite sure what he had done wrong when his dad punished him. The ginger thought that was a little odd since he was supposed to be learning from his mistakes and how could he learn from his mistakes if he didn't know what mistakes he made? But he didn't question his father because Rudolph West was, well, his father. And parents always know what they're doing, right?_

_Wally frowned slightly as he absentmindedly grabbed some Band-Aids and a bowl of water to clean himself up, moving very slowly for fear of jostling some ribs. Wally looked over at the clock and frowned deeper. It was almost two in the morning! He must have been out for quite some time. He better be quieter about what he was doing. He didn't want to wake his parents up with any needless noise. He'd found that they were a lot nicer when they got a full night's sleep. Wally grabbed some Resolve and a towel from the kitchen before starting to clean up the speckles of blood on the carpet from where he had been lying. He wanted to make sure that the house was very clean for his parents when they woke up in the morning._

_Quietly and vigorously scrubbing the floor with possibly broken ribs was a lot more painful than it should have been, Wally thought vindictively. He wished he was like the Flash and could heal super fast. At least, Wally assumed the Flash could heal really fast. It was the young ginger's theory that whatever happened to turn the speedster into a speedster must have sped up every cell in his body. It was the only way Wally could explain the way Flash could phase through things. He must have been able to vibrate his molecules fast enough to go through solid objects! So he could either speed up his cells by choice or they went that fast on a regular basis. Either way, the scarlet hero of Central City should be able to heal quickly. It made the most sense to Wally, the ever dedicated fan of the Flash._

_Of course, he wasn't allowed to have any Flash merchandise in the house, or talk about Flash in the house, and he couldn't really talk about the superhero at school either since everyone there hated him. Wally shrugged to himself again, not really caring. He had scores of notebooks hidden across his room with notes about the Flash written in a code he had developed. He had determined that once he made a friend (and he would, he just knew it), he would teach that friend the code and they could mess around and confuse the other kids with their superior intellect._

_Wally had always known that he was smarter than the average kid, but he hadn't thought much about it until he listened through the door in one of the parent-teacher conferences. The teachers had gushed about how intelligent he was and how they absolutely recommending letting skip a grade, or maybe more than one grade. They called him a genius. Wally honestly couldn't remember the last time his little family had seemed so happy. Rudolph (Rudy) West and Mary West had scooped Wally up and told him how special he was and how happy they were that they had such an amazing kid and how they loved him so much. It was the moments like that that convinced Wally that his parents did, in fact, love him._

_Of course, it was getting harder and harder to convince himself of that fact. As the years went on and their financial situation got progressively worse and Mary's drinking started to become a problem and Rudy gambled all of their money away and Wally stopped getting straight one hundreds as school became harder, his parents got progressively less happy, beating him more and telling him how much of a freak he was and how they hated him. He ignored their comments most of the time, convinced that the only reason they said that was because they were stressed and the alcohol was getting to them. They loved him. They had to._

Wally's eyes opened slightly as he heard something crackle at the front of the alley he was in. He pulled himself up from where he had been sleeping and pulled his backpack closer to himself. What was going on? The ginger stayed low to the ground and edged his head around the side of the dumpster to get a clearer look. Captain Cold was standing right there in front of some frozen police officers! Wally knew that he would eventually get a glimpse of the Central City Rogues since he was, in fact, in Central City, but he never thought he was going to see one up close and personal in the little alley he had been calling his home for the past couple of weeks. Then Wally caught sight of what was in the hand that Cold wasn't using to hold his cold gun. It was a huge bag of cash from a bank! He must have just robbed one.

The ginger bit his lip slightly. He knew this was a bad idea. He could feel it in his bones that he shouldn't do what he was about to do. That didn't stop Wally though. Reaching into his bag and pulling out a domino mask with white screens to cover his eyes, Wally swept his hood over his head and activated a locking mechanism that instantly made the hood stiff. Within a second, he was off.

The young speedster couldn't help but laugh as he sped through the small street, quickly gaining speed and weaving around the frozen people. He ducked under Cold's gun, watching as the man ever so slowly turned to see Wally, but he was gone, already on the Rogue's other side and snatching the bag from his grip. Soon he was speeding down the alley again. As he reached his sleeping spot, he slowed slightly to grab his backpack so he could make a clean get away. That was his mistake.

A beam of ice latched onto his back and quickly spread, encasing all but his head in the frozen liquid. Wally hung his head, already mentally berating himself for being so stupid. What was he thinking trying to steal from a Rogue? They lived to steal and he just occasionally stole things to stay alive! Ugh!

Suddenly Captain Cold was standing in front of him, grinning triumphantly. At least, he was until he saw just who he had trapped with his gun. The man's gruff voice rang out, "Who are you, kid? You're not the Flash."

Wally, who apparently decided he wanted to get killed, responded quickly, "No, really? I couldn't tell. This entire time I was convinced I was the Flash. What a shame, really."

Cold's jaw tightened and he fingered his gun lightly, easily getting his threat through to Wally, "I wouldn't mess with me, kid. I don't like hurting children, but I can make exceptions. Now I'll ask you again. Who are you?"

"None of your business. And I'm not a kid!" Wally answered defiantly. Once again, not his best move.

Cold raised his arm to do something; Wally wasn't sure what. It looked like he was about to backhand him, but he could have been trying to break the ice to get the bag of money back, but either way the man was stopped when a voice called out from behind them, "Captain Cold!"

Wally paled as he recognized the voice and within a second the Flash was zooming past him, chasing after the Rogue who was futilely attempting to make an escape. Uncle Barry. Wally remembered a time when he idolized the Flash and his Uncle Barry was just one step below him on the hero scale. Little did he know that they were both the same person. He had been ecstatic when he first found out, but he still hadn't told his Uncle that he knew his secret. Too many things had happened. Wally mentally shook his head and started vibrating. He needed to get out of this ice trap and grab his stuff before the Flash came back around. Uncle Barry hadn't seen him since he was eleven and that was four years ago, but there was still a chance he would be recognized.

The final ice chunks fell off just as Flash turned the corner. Before the fastest man alive could blink, the teenager was gone; backpack slung over one shoulder and a bag of stolen money held in one hand.

LLLLLL

Captain Cold frowned as he pressed himself against the wall of an alley, remembering another alley from two weeks ago. There was something about that kid who'd had the gall to steal right out of his hand and then run away when the Flash came running back. Apparently the kid had taken the money so he wasn't just trying to be a mini-hero like Snart had originally thought. He was a thief. Cold had told the other Rogues about the kid and asked them to keep an eye out for him, but when all Cold had seen of him was the bottom of his face (the rest being covered by a domino mask and a hood) it made it kind of hard to find the kid. Weather Wizard whipped around the corner, hiding next to Cold behind the dumpster. They heard Pied Piper's melodious notes and Trickster's high laugh as the two distracted the police (and hopefully the Flash) while Weather Wizard and Captain Cold made themselves scarce, waiting for Trickster and Pied Piper to circle back around and get into the alleyway where Mirror Master would get them all out. Heat Wave, Captain Boomerang, and Mirror Master were supposedly already back in the hide-out with the stolen items.

Weather Wizard panted out, "You gotten a chance to check the alley yet? Make sure there isn't anyone already in here?"

"Not yet." Cold replied, practically emotionlessly. He didn't do emotions.

Weather Wizard nodded to him and the two of them started creeping down the alleyway, Weather Wizard facing one side and Captain Cold facing the other. They both had their respective weapons held at the ready. They were about halfway down the alley when Weather Wizard raised his hand, signifying a need to stop. Cold muttered, "What did you see?"

Weather Wizard frowned, "I dunno. I think it's a dead body."

"Is it a dead body or is it not a dead body?" Cold snapped.

"I told you, I don't know." Weather Wizard snapped back.

"Why don't you find out?" Cold forced through his teeth.

Weather Wizard made a disgusted sound and said, "No way, you do it. I don't want to touch some dead body." Cold growled at him and the two switched places. Now that Cold could see the body, he could agree with Weather Wizard's assessment. He really could be dead or alive. It was a young teen, probably thirteen or fourteen. He had the brightest red hair Captain Cold had ever seen and it was unruly and tangled and matted with blood. His skin was pale, but he couldn't tell if that was because of blood loss or if he was normally that pale. It might have been both. There were freckles ranging across his cheeks and nose. As Cold's eyes raked over the body, he realized that the teen had probably gotten the living daylight beaten out of him recently. The teen was bruised and there were cuts and stab wounds and some of his limbs were at awkward angles, signifying a break. Cold sighed and pulled his glove off, pressing two fingers to the kid's neck.

Apparently the cold pressure of his fingers woke the kid up because eyelids flew open and a hand was gripping his wrist weakly in seconds. Cold's eyes widened minutely as he stared into bright emerald eyes. The hand holding his own seemed malformed and he figured there were probably broken fingers on that hand. It wasn't holding his wrist very tightly either. It seemed like the kid was using all of his effort just to keep his arm in that position. Cold called behind him, "Well, he's alive."

Weather Wizard must have caught some of the curiosity that was coloring his leader's voice because he turned around slightly and saw the teen gripping Cold's wrist limply. He raised an eyebrow and said, "What do you want to do with him?"

Trickster's voice interrupted whatever Cold was about to say, "Do with who?"

Pied Piper sighed and said, "Probably the only other person in the alleyway."

"Oh!" Trickster chirped, practically bouncing over to where Cold was crouching on the ground. Cold resisted the urge to sigh and instead watched as terrified green eyes settled on Trickster. The blond villain cooed slightly, plopping down on the ground and easily sitting cross legged. He leaned into the beaten teen's personal space (the kid was still holding onto Cold's arm so he was uncomfortably close to Trickster as well) and chirped, "Hi!"

The kid coughed, a painful thing that shook his whole body (and Cold realized that his body was painfully thin), "Hey."

Pied Piper and Weather Wizard had crowded closer at that point, leaning over them and observing the kid together. Captain Cold's eyebrows drew together as he thought. He'd heard that voice before, but where? Trickster was already talking again, "You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good." The stranger groaned, attempting to curl into himself, finally letting go of Cold's wrists. As the teen moved, however, Cold caught sight of the backpack lying underneath him. And suddenly he knew where he'd heard that voice before.

Cold's accusing voice broke over whatever Trickster had been about to say, "You stole that money from me two weeks ago."

The kid's eyes rolled back over towards him and those green eyes widened in recognition. Suddenly the kid was scrambling to get up, coughing at the attempt and grimacing every time he shifted. Weather Wizard and Pied Piper both started to try to gently keep him where he was, but he was determined to get away. Piper glanced up at Cold desperately, unsure about what to do. Cold just nodded and Pied Piper sighed. Not wasting another second, Piper raised his flute to his lips (the other Rogues covering their ears out of habit) and played a tune. Whatever he played worked and the kid slumped back down to the ground, asleep. Piper's voice was concerned as he asked, "Should we get him to a hospital?"

Weather Wizard responded sarcastically, "Of course we should. No one's going to be at all concerned about a group of Rogues walking into the hospital with some random beaten up kid. No one's going to try to arrest us at all."

Piper scowled at him and said, "What do you suggest doing then? Taking him back to the hideout is a much better option."

Weather Wizard scowled right back, "I never said we should bring him back there."

"If you don't have a better idea, then don't say we can't do mine." Piper snapped. "Just because I don't have something else doesn't mean that yours isn't stupid." Weather Wizard glowered.

"Can we maybe focus a little? We have a bigger problem than some half-dead kid on the ground. Flasher will be here any minute and, hopefully, Mirror Master will be here sooner." Cold drawled, getting annoyed at his team's antics. Honestly. It was a wonder they hadn't killed each other yet.

Trickster chirped his opinion from the ground where he was still sitting cross-legged, "We should take him home! I mean, how cool would it be to have a speedster on the team?"

At that, the whole group froze, turning to look down at their second youngest (although he often acted younger than anyone else in the group) member. What he said… actually made sense. How better to fight a speedster than with a speedster? Their successful crime rate would double – triple even. If they brought this kid back to base and tended to his wounds and fed him and stuff, surely he would feel indebted to the Rogues. It was obvious that the kid lived on the streets. Why else would Cold have run into him twice in old alleyways? Once he realized how much more fun it was to steal on as big of a scale as they did, he'd join them in a heartbeat. Cold was actually starting to like this idea. Apparently that was obvious because Pied Piper started protesting immediately, "Oh no, no, no. That is not a good idea. We don't bring people back to our hideout for a reason. Just because he stole from you that one time doesn't mean that he's a legitimate thief. For all that we know, the moment we have him patched up, he'll make a run for it and tell everyone where we live. He might even be working with the Flash!"

"Do you really think that Flasher would let someone he worked with get into this sorry state?" Weather Wizard pushed. It was obvious that he'd come to the same conclusions as Len had.

There was a moment's pause where the kid groaned from his spot sleeping on the ground and Piper finally capitulated, "Okay, fine. Whatever." For the first time in a while, he sounded like the moody teenager he was.

"It's decided then." Cold announced. It always made him feel like an awesome leader when he said stuff like that – not that he'd ever admit that out loud.

"What's decided?" A distinctly Australian accented voice came from behind him.

Captain Cold turned around to see Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, and Heatwave peering at them through an old, cracked mirror that was leaning against one side of the alleyway. Cold grunted out, "We're taking this kid back and treating his wounds. He's the speedster that stole that cash a couple weeks back."

"Why would we want him here?" Heatwave grunted back, eying the kid's beaten body wearily.

"Think about the advantages of having a speedster on our side." Mirror Master said thoughtfully, eying the body with a much more optimistic expression. "That doesn't really matter at the moment. If we're taking him back, then you should probably get him through. We're running low on time. You are, in fact, being chased by law enforcement after stealing some pretty valuable valuables."

"Yeah, yeah. We're coming." Weather Wizard responded gruffly, hefting the kid up. If Cold hadn't worked with the man for so long, he wouldn't have recognized that the metahuman was being as gentle as he possibly could given the time restraints. The man walked through the mirror, Pied Piper dragging Trickster along immediately afterwards. Cold took one last look around the alley and spotted the kid's backpack. He scooped it up and made his way through the mirror, stomach clenching painfully as nausea overtook him. After all this time, he'd have thought that he'd have gotten used to traveling through the mirror dimension.

Apparently transportation via mirrors didn't agree so well with the kid either because the trip woke him up and had him dry heaving into a trashcan that Sam always had on hand for when they got back from the mirror world. Despite his earlier reservations, Mick was there gently rubbing circles on the kid's back, trying to get him to stop his dry heaving. A few moments later, the kid stopped and fell backwards a little bit, towards the mirror he'd just come out of. He lay there panting for a little bit, his eyes closed and his nose scrunched up in pain. Another few moments later, his eyes opened and he blinked blearily at the Rogues, "Where-," He was cut off by a cough that had his whole body shaking again. Mick moved back to his side and tried to keep him at least sitting upright while he coughed.

Len got the drift of what he was trying to say, though, and answered, "You're at the Rogue hideout. We figured that a hospital wouldn't be the best choice."

The kid, his voice finally back but still hoarse and croaky, said, "Ha, yeah. Hospitals are a no go. Central City might be a place of metahumans, but people still don't like them. Hospital people even less." Huh, Len hadn't even thought of that. He guessed it made sense. The rest of the country toted Central as a place of sunshine and un-ending joy, but they didn't realize that it could be just as bad as many other cities. People here were still jerks and they still had a slum and their homeless population was pretty high too. Central was a good place to live, but it still wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

Hartley pushed his way towards the kid on the ground and set down the heavy duty first aid kit they had. Len hadn't even seen him leave to go get it. Voice soft, Hartley offered a glass of water and a couple of pills to the kid, "Here, these'll make you feel better." The kid eyed them warily and Hartley sighed sharply, his voice gaining a little bit more of his usual attitude, "It's just pain medication. We aren't trying to get you hooked on some mysterious drug. Moron."

The kid's head fell back against the mirror, "No thanks."

Mark frowned, "I don't think you can really afford to say no to pain meds, kid."

"I'm not a kid." The ginger frowned before sighing (wincing as he did so – there were definitely injured ribs involved), "Look, you obviously know I'm a speedster. That means my metabolism is off the charts. By the time the pain meds would start working, they've already made it through my system. Basically, they're useless to me. So there's no point on wasting them." Len's eyebrow rose. Did Flash have to deal with that, too? That couldn't be fun.

Hartley frowned in concentration, "Okay then. Can you tell me any injuries you know of? We can start by dealing with those and then we'll deal with the rest later."

The kid scowled, "I don't know. My left leg is broken in, like, three places. Most of the fingers on my left hand are broken and the wrist is definitely sprained. My ribs are bruised on my right side and broken on my left – maybe cracked. It's hard to tell the different sometimes. Black eye. Bruises all over. Stab wounds on my left leg, my left arm in two places, and the left shoulder. Why do you even care? Why didn't you just leave me there?"

Digger responded before the others could, voice heated, "Did y' think we'd just leave ya there? Ya needed help."

"Yeah, but – Ow! Hey!" The kid glared vehemently at Hartley who just glared back. The kid's voice was starting to sound a little less rough, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm trying to set your bones." Hartley scowled.

The kid gave him a scowl to match, "They're already healed. You've got to break them again and then set them."

"What?" Mark asked in horror.

The kid kept up his scowl, "Speed healing has it downsides too. I was too busy being beat up and then being unconscious to set my leg so it healed in the wrong position." He glared at the leg as if it had personally offended him. Len was starting to grow a little bit of respect for what Flash had to go through. If it was anything like this…

Hartley stood up, his hands in the air, "I'm not qualified to deal with that." He stepped back a little bit and stared at the others as if that would get them to step up to the task. None of them wanted to break this kid's leg!

The kid sighed exasperatedly and said, "I can do it myself. Jesus. For a bunch of villains, you're all pansies." At first, Len was offended at the kid's nerve, but then he realized that the acid words the kid spewed were a cover up for his pain or fear. That thought was proven when the kid gripped his leg and started talking again, "Seriously. Don't you, like, maim people on a regular basis and eat kids for break- breakfast or- or somet-thing?" Each little hiccup in his words was punctuated by a loud snap as he re-broke each broken part of his leg. He sat there, breathing harshly for a moment before he moved onto his fingers, audibly gritting his teeth and snapping his fingers back into place.

Mark decided to rise to the bait, "We're not like that." He snapped, "We're not some sort of monsters like those freaks up in Gotham are."

"You're villains." The kid snapped back, nose scrunching up in pain again as Hartley stepped back in and started setting the bones.

"That doesn't mean that we're evil. We do this because it's fun. The Rogues have a strict moral code of conduct." Len inserted.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize." The kid actually sounded contrite. At least, until he kept going, "So, what? You only eat babies on Thursdays?"

"We don't kill. Period. Unless it's for revenge. We'll kill for revenge." Digger growled out.

That seemed to finally shut the kid up because he narrowed his eyes at them for a moment before letting his head lean back against the mirror with a small thunk and a little groan. Hartley continued cleaning his wounds, motioning for a new bottle of alcohol or a new bandage from time to time. James was sitting next to him, handing him the items happily and murmuring a little tune to himself. There was a long moment of silence before Sam spoke up, "Say, what's your name, kid?"

"Not a kid." The ginger muttered rebelliously.

"Answer the question, runt." Digger snapped.

There was a long stretch of silence where Len didn't think he would answer before the ginger finally let out, "Wally."

Mick laughed and Wally opened one eye to glare at him. Mick shook his head and said, "Sorry, but that's a stupid name."

"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly get much input into that decision. I was a little bit not born yet." Wally shot back sardonically. This kid really had a mouth on him.

Sam continued pushing, "You're what? Twelve?"

"Seriously?" Wally yelped, "Do I seriously look twelve? I'm fifteen!" Even Len's eyebrows rose at that. If he'd had to guess, Len would have said that the kid was thirteen, maybe fourteen if he was really pushing it. Fifteen wouldn't have even occurred to him. How malnourished do you have to be to get that small?

"Do you even eat?" Hartley asked incredulously. He'd gotten Wally's dirty, torn shirt up while they were talking and was probably going to take a look at the injured ribs, but it was obvious what had taken his attention away from that. Len couldn't drag his eyes away either. The kid was a literal stick. He didn't have a bit of meat on him! All of his ribs showed (at the very least making it easy to tell which of them were broken) and his stomach caved in slightly. He looked like one of those people they show from prison camps or something. It was awful.

That set the kid scowling again, "I already told you I have an enhanced metabolism. I need at least 10 K calories a day to eat enough to keep me alive. When you're homeless and jobless, food intake decreases quite a bit. It's not like I can get enough food from dumpster diving."

Len's eyebrow was raised when he drawled, "You had quite a bit of money from a couple of weeks ago. I can't imagine that you couldn't have bought enough food with that much money." Inwardly, though, Len was wincing. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be for a homeless kid to get that much food all the time. There were people with steady incomes who would have a hard time feeding that.

Wally's eyes grew sad and he drew in on himself, "I used some of it on food! It's just… I was gonna keep it but… there was this orphanage and it was obvious that they weren't getting enough funding to take care of themselves. What else was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave them like that!" He'd grown defensive by the end, finishing with, "I kept some for myself, but then one of the gangs near the alley I was staying caught wind of the money I had and I was too busy running for my life to spend the money on food. I would have just given them the money and scrammed, but I knew that group and they don't care if you give them the money or not. If you didn't go straight to them with the money, then they were going to beat you half to death and take the money no matter what."

"That's what happened to you?" Mark asked quietly, some of his earlier annoyance fading.

Wally just nodded miserably. Len, against his will, felt his heart go out to this kid. He had some balls stealing from the Rogues and then snarking at them when they tried to patch him up, but it was obvious to Len that it was all just a defense mechanism. He recognized that particular strategy from when he was a kid and his sharp tongue was the only thing that kept him alive among his father's associates.

Len decided to put himself back into the conversation, "We can stop them from ever doing that to you again. You don't have to worry about dumpster diving or being picked on by local gangs for not giving them your… earnings. You won't ever have to find an alley to sleep in again." Wally was looking at him suspiciously and Len had the strange experience of watching a bruise on the kid's temple go through the stages of being a bruise over a matter of moments. Len continued once he was sure his words had soaked in, "Join the Rogues."


	2. A Team

WWWWWW

It took Wally about thirty seconds to actually process what the leader of the Rogues had just said. It took him another thirty seconds to actually form a response. Then he realized that he'd been silent for an inordinate amount of time and they were all probably looking at him like he was some sort of weirdo. Not that that was anything new…

Except, when he looked up, he noticed that all of them were eerily still. None of them were moving at all. With a sigh, Wally realized that he'd sped up his perception to the point that everyone else was moving incredibly slowly. What held felt like over a minute to him likely hadn't even registered as a picosecond to them. This had been one of the hardest things about his powers in the beginning. It was just  _so hard_  to slow down and sometimes he hadn't even been able to tell he was going too fast until everyone else stopped moving and the first few times that'd happened… he'd been terrified. He'd had no idea how to react. Not that any of that was relevant at the moment. What was relevant was that the world was starting to speed back up around him until everything was normal time and Wally could finally get out the answer he'd been holding in, "What is  _wrong_ with you people?" Okay, that was not what he'd meant to say. Despite how long he'd been planning it, he still messed up and said the wrong thing. Fantastic.

Captain Cold's eyebrow rose slightly and that really shouldn't have been as terrifying as it was, but then Captain Cold was drawling out a response, "I don't think you have room to be insulting us when you're currently at our mercy."

Wally couldn't help the scowl that formed (not that he'd want to), "First you invite me to join your little boy band and then you threaten me. I'm getting mixed vibes here."

"Will ya stop messing around and be serious!" Captain Boomerang exploded, glaring at Wally.

The speedster in question snapped back, "I  _am_  being serious! What made you think it was a good idea to grab some random kid off the streets – speedster or not, injured or not – and take care of him and invite him to join your group? You guys are actual legitimate villains! The only reason I steal is to survive! I'm not like you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Trickster asked and his voice was so innocent that Wally felt some of his anger melting away.

"I mean that I don't find it fun to steal." Wally sighed.

"That's stupid!" Trickster announced before tilting his head to the side and asking curiously, "Have you ever tried stealing for fun?"

"No…" Wally responded, pretty sure where this was going, but not wanting to go there.

Sure enough, Trickster perked up and said, "Then you don't know that you don't like it! Come ooooonnnnnn… It'll be fun! And you'll have a house and food and a shower because, no offense, but you need a shower and you'll have a big family and ice cream and TV and a room and a blanket and-,"

Pied Piper started talking over Trickster like it was an everyday occurrence (and Wally could see where that would be the case), "Look, Wally. We saw you on that street and we wanted to help you. At first, that didn't mean taking you in. It just meant getting you somewhere you could heal. Then Len recognized you as the person who stole from him and James said that we should take you in and we all warmed up to the idea simply because you'd be useful when fighting against the Flash." Wally inwardly winced at the harshness of the words, but they made sense. That was more what he was used to. People only did things if it was for personal gain. But then Pied Piper kept going, "Then we started treating you and you started talking and we realized that maybe there could be more benefit to each of us. I was a bit thief when Len found me and I hated the idea of working with a team – I'm more of a solo person, but they convinced me and I would never change the decision I made that day. We really are a family – an occasionally moronic, often dysfunctional, continuously fighting family. Give it a try, okay?"

And, yeah, that convinced Wally more than it should have. Pied Piper had just laid out base facts and given him a success story. Those were facts. Facts Wally could deal with. People… not so much. But when it was put that way… Wally sighed loudly, "Fine. I'll join the Rogues." Trickster whooped and started jumping around. Heatwave easily grabbed the excitable villain around the waist and gently deposited him in one of the nearby chairs, lightly patting the blonde's head once he was settled. Pied Piper smiled gently at Wally and leaned back to start putting the med stuff away. Captain Cold was still watching Wally, well, coldly and Mirror Master was eying him just as warily. Wally was pretty sure he'd permanently damaged all chances of Captain Boomerang liking him and he wasn't sure what to think of Weather Wizard either. It didn't matter in the long run. He was stuck here now.

After a moment's pause where everyone just kind of sat there awkwardly, Captain Cold rolled his eyes and said, "When we're at the base, we call each other by our names and not by our codenames. Out on the field, we only call each other by our codenames and never our names. Got that? Good. I'm Leonard Snart. Call me Len. I'm the leader of the Rogues and I'm the head of this family."

Heatwave cut him off with a snort, "Sure, until Lisa comes over. Then you're nothing but some wimpy doting older brother."

Len gave Heatwave an icy glare before turning back to Wally, "That moron is Mick Rory. Piper is Hartley Rathaway." He ignored Wally's snort and kept going, "Trickster is James Jesse. Weather Wizard is Mark Mardon. Mirror Master is Sam Scudder. Captain Boomerang is Digger Harkness. There you go. Dinner will be in a half an hour. James will show you to your new room. Go shower and be ready to eat when we call you." He paused for a moment before apparently seeing Wally's face and scowling, "What?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I don't really think you guys had any excuse to mock my name. It's certainly better than any you guys've got. Except maybe James Jesse. That's actually pretty cool." Wally eventually conceded, head tilted to the side as he thought about it. Mark Mardon was pretty okay too, now that he thought about it.

He didn't see the hand coming until there was a light smack against his head. It didn't hurt even with the headache he had from getting beat up, but he couldn't help the way he'd recoiled from the man. Len didn't seem to notice and just said, "Try to muzzle that mouth a little. You're trying my patience."

Wally just nodded and scrambled up after James who'd already started down the hall. He stumbled to the side at first, unused to the splint on his leg, but then he was fine. He steadfastly ignored the snickers from the other men in the room.

HHHHHH

Hartley frowned thoughtfully at the retreating figure. The moment that bright red hair was out of view, he asked, "You guys notice how bad he flinched when Len smacked him? Which, by the way, next time wait until  _after_  he's healed up some before smacking him." He turned a glare onto his leader, not really meaning anything by it, just needing something normal to insert into the conversation. Today was just supposed to be an easy heist and instead they'd ended up bringing a speedster home.

Len ignored him and started walking towards the kitchen. Mick jogged to catch up with him, "What do you want me to make tonight? We've got pretty much everything so it's whatever you guys want."

"We're ordering takeout." Len announced emotionlessly.

Sam frowned, "That's a group decision, Len."

"Alright," Len said, turning to face Mick, "Do you want to make enough food to feed a speedster with what we've got in the fridge keeping in mind that you've got to feed the other seven of us as well?"

"No." Mick answered, shrugging easily, "So, what do you guys want me to order?" And just like that, everyone started throwing opinions out. It was mutually decided that Mick ordered takeout because it didn't work the best with the rest of them. James… well, that's pretty obvious on its own. Hartley hated phone calls because of the way they sounded through his hearing aids. Len got too irritable with the people who couldn't understand him and ended up threatening them. Sam was capable of making the call, but if they asked him, he just stared at them like they were crazy for asking him to do work. Mark hated phones on principle after fifth time he ran into a phone tower. Digger's accent was often hard for people to make out and he ended up having much the same problem as Len. Maybe this new kid could do it and make things a little easier on Mick. Maybe he could cook sometime too. Mick ended up doing most of the cooking. Len only worked with cold things which was ridiculously clichéd. Digger did barbeques sometimes (also clichéd) and Sam liked to make malts and smoothies and shakes. Hartley had zero skill in a kitchen unless he was making brownies. He made some  _killer_  brownies, but still managed to burn every cake he attempted to create. Mardon was worse than he was in the kitchen and, again, James was James. There wasn't much else to say there. So, hopefully the kid could cook.

They finally settled on Chinese and Mick and Mark started haggling over amounts. Hartley turned back to Len, "You didn't answer my question."

"I think it'd be a little difficult to miss that flinch." Len responded, idly going into the living room and hanging up his parka.

"Do you think he was, I don't know, abused or something?" Hartley pressed.

"It would seem that way." Len responded, his voice never changing affliction.

"Who do you think he is, really? I mean, he only gave us his first name and even that we don't know if it's real or not. Where did he get his speed? How did he end up on the streets?" Hartley mused to himself.

Len sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "How, exactly, am I supposed to know that? Why don't you go wait with James and just  _ask_  him?" It was a clear dismissal, but it didn't stop Hartley from glaring at the man a moment before heading off down the hallways James had lead their newest member recently.

He found James sitting on a bed in one of the guest bedrooms, flipping through his favorite picture book. Hartley remembered stealing that for him last Christmas. The room was simple in its elegance. The walls were an even beige color and the furniture was all made of simple light oak that seemed to almost blend into the wall. There was the bed and an empty bookshelf, a dresser, a chest at the foot of the bed, and an end table at the side of the bed. There was a door cracked open that led to, presumably, a closet and another door that was firmly closed with sounds of running water coming from it. Looking around, Hartley figured that Wally must have brought his backpack into the bathroom with him. He sat cross-legged on the bed, leaning against the headboard, "This room doesn't have much feeling, does it?"

"Nope! But we'll go shopping soon to fix that, right? Can we get him all new furniture? That would be so much fun!" James chirped, eyes bright. As often as Hartley pretended to be annoyed with the slightly older teen, he really did like him and thought of him as an awesome brother. At least he didn't have to be the baby of the family anymore.

Hartley and James made small talk for a few moments before Wally stepped out, a not bloodstained outfit on and his backpack gripped in his hand. His hair was still damp and seemed to be even more of a mess than it was dry. That was impressive. For a moment, no one said anything. Hartley was more than willing to let the silence stretch, but apparently Wally wasn't, "So you guys all live here?"

"Yeah. It's easier when we're all in one place. Cheaper too." Hartley responded in that same even tone Wally was using.

"Hm." Wally said noncommittally. Hartley frowned at the image that was presented. Wally looked like some street kid had wandered into a hotel room. They really needed to personalize this room and get Wally some new clothes. He'd need a haircut too. Wally's voice broke him out of his inner musings, "You guys know that I have no fighting skills at all, right? For all that you guys want me to go against the- the Flash, I'm really not good at actually fighting someone. I can run away just fine. I can't fight. And I don't have some supervillain name or some costume or whatever. You guys are going to regret taking me in."

It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself and Hartley smiled a little bit in sympathy. He knew that feeling. The feeling when you're new to the team and you think that you can't possibly have anything to add. They'd make sure that went away quick. Hartley was starting to warm up to this loud-mouthed kid, so they weren't getting rid of him anytime soon. Hartley was quick to respond, "We'll figure out the villain stuff later. For now, we'll focus on getting you settled in and trained. It's not just about being able to fight – it's about being able to fight together. That's harder if you ask me. Len will probably get you enrolled in our school. You're what? Sophomore?"

"Graduated." Wally muttered.

Hartley figured he must have heard him wrong, so he asked sharply, "What?"

Wally looked up at him, "I graduated already. Two years ago. Things kind of went downhill, though, and college wasn't an option." He shrugged like it was no big deal.

"So you're some kind of genius." Hartley stated, just to see how he would react.

Wally's nose crinkled and he looked… offended almost, "I wouldn't say I'm a  _genius_. I don't believe there's an accurate way to quantify intelligence. There are people all over the world who can't take a test to save their lives, but give them a week in the lab and they've whipped up a vaccine against some awful disease. Everyone has their own talents and it's unfair to label someone as a genius for being book smart and not label the kid who was amazing with the piano a genius for, well, being amazing with a piano. It's stupid."

"Alright then, calling you a genius is a no-go. Glad I asked." Hartley smirked. Wally glared half-heartedly at him.

Before either of them could keep going in the conversation, the doorbell rang and the sounds of bags shifting hands could be heard. The door slammed shut again and, before those downstairs could say it, James leaned up to Hartley and yelled, "DINNER TIME!" Then he raced off, almost clipping the door on his way out.

Hartley snarled, "Why you!" before giving chase, tearing down the hallway as fast as he could.

He only realized that Wally was keep pace with him when Wally said, "Is this a normal occurrence?"

Huffing out a laugh, Hartley said, "I wouldn't call anything in this family 'normal', but this is certainly a common occurrence."

James ended up beating them to the dining room easily, sticking his tongue out at them as they walked in. Hartley stuck his tongue out in return, but no one saw it to prove it. Everyone started bustling around the room, each taking over their normal duties. James was in charge of pouring the drinks because, surprisingly, he could pour the stuff super-fast without overflow or spillage. It was one of his few rare skills. Sam put out the silverware because he was the one they always said was the  _least_  likely to stab someone with a fork if they were moving too slow. Hartley moved the napkins and plates into place, making sure that it was set out neatly. Len, Digger, and Mark always moved the food onto the table and Mick always got the easy job of carrying the drinks to the table (he made/ordered the food, so it was only fair that he get let off the hook for making the table). As Hartley was halfway through finishing his job, he noticed that Wally was standing awkwardly off to the side of the room, one arm crossover over his torso and most of his weight rested on his good leg.

Hartley winced as he thought about how awkward this must be for the kid. The Rogues came together all at once. At least, they started living together all at once, so there hadn't ever really been any sort of newcomer who they had to accept into their fold. They made traditions and habits around each other and here was this new person who had no idea how they fit into this messed up equation. So Hartley waved him over and put a stack of napkins in the kid's hands, "Put it on the right side of each plate except for Len's which is that one at the head of the table there, and mine which is on the right side of the table two seats down from Len's end. You'll be taking the spot next to Len on the same side of the table where I sit. Put your napkin however you want it." Wally nodded and started twisting around the other people in the dining room, trying his best to lay out the napkins without hurting anyone in the process.

Actually, now that Hartley thought about it, why was Wally up and about anyways? How stupid could they be? He should be resting! He'd just gotten the living daylights beaten out of him and they had him going up and down stairs and taking a shower and laying out napkins. Apparently Digger thought so too because he frowned thoughtfully and said, "Hey ankle-biter, whatcha doing running all up and down the place? You've got a broken leg. Yer just gonna hurt yourself more."

With that, Wally was scowling again, "My leg's almost healed. And it wasn't like I was actually running. That was, what? Ten, fifteen miles per hour? If I wanted to do myself some damage I'd have to do better than  _that_." Now that Hartley thought about it, had he even seen the kid smile at all? This entire time? If Wally had smiled, then Hartley hadn't noticed.

Digger's frown deepened and he grouched out, "I was just trying to be helpful. Not my fault you can't take some good advice."

"From you?" Wally said testily.

Digger glared daggers (or, well, boomerangs) at Wally before huffing out a sigh and sitting at his spot at the table. Which he just then realized was directly across from Wally. Huffing out another sigh, Digger slouched in his seat and glared moodily at his plate. It was almost funny how similar Wally's actions were.

Rolling his eyes at their behavior, Hartley sat himself down at his place and carefully moved the napkin onto his lap, rearranging his dishes and utensils until they were where he wanted them to be. He heard more than felt Wally sit down delicately in the seat next to him. Soon, everyone was sitting in their respective seats. Len was at one head of the table and Mick at the other. Digger, Mark, and Sam were on one side, and Wally, Hartley, and James were on the other. They always sat Sam across from James because the teen would always eventually end up kicking out at whomever sat across from him and Sam always kept his legs tucked underneath the chair, meaning that James couldn't reach his legs. It was a win-win for everyone.

Len settled in last, "Do you do any sort of prayers before dinner, Wally?" He shook head silently and Len nodded back, "Dig in, then." Hartley held back a little, knowing that people would leave enough for him even though they were currently attacking the stacks of food like wild animals. Wally was holding back too, although Hartley figured it was for a different reason. He looked unsure of himself, like he was warring with the idea of getting food and the idea of overstepping. So Hartley sighed to himself and reached towards one of the containers of Chinese, almost getting the skin of his arm flayed off at one point before finally bringing the carton back to the relative safety of the space between Hartley and the slightly younger teen. Rolling his eyes at group around him, he started piling food onto his and Wally's plates (giving Wally twice of what he was giving himself).

As the flurry of arms in the center of the table started to die down and people started to actually eat their food, Wally stared wide-eyed at his plate. He glanced around him uncertainly before digging into the food in front of him. He kept the plate (plates, actually, now that Hartley was looking closer) close to his body and made sure that the movements from his plate to his mouth were as minimal as possible. It almost looked like he expected one of them to snatch the food right off his fork! Mark must have come to the same conclusion because he frowned at Wally, "You don't need to eat so fast, kid. We're not going to take away your food. There's plenty more where this came from anyways."

Wally looked like he was going to say something back, but he apparently held it in, pausing for a moment before resuming eating at a much slower pace than before. He didn't stop the defensive position he held over his food. Hartley sighed into his own food. There was a lot of work to be done to get this one to trust them. Was this how the others felt when Hartley joined?

Hartley was distracted from his plans on what to do to help Wally trust them by Wally himself announcing sourly, "There's no need to bring me shopping."

"If I say there's a need to bring you shopping, then there's a need to bring you shopping. Do you even own something without holes in it?" Len asked.

"Probably." Wally threw back. Len rolled his eyes.

"C'mon kiddo, let him take you shopping. Better yet, take Hartley and James to go shopping with you. That's what teenagers do nowadays." Mark said, taking a huge bite of his food and trying to speak around it.

Sam smacked the back of Mark's head and laughed when he started choking. Mark finally got his breath back and was about to say something, but Sam cut him off, "We'll talk to the principal at Hartley and James's school on Monday about getting you enrolled there."

Hartley responded to that before Wally could, "He graduated high school when he was thirteen."

Sam's head whipped up and he immediately started asking Wally questions, "You're pretty good at school then, huh? What were you big in? History? Lit? Math? Science?"

"Uh, math and science were my big things. I was pretty good in history, but I sucked at lit." Wally answered back, obviously confused by the sudden onslaught. Hartley kind of was too.

Sam nodded good-naturedly and said, "Cool. How about physics? Did you like that at all?" Ah, that's why he was so interested. Being as unbelievably good at physics as he was, Sam was always sad that no one else in the group shared his love of the subject. He just wanted someone to nerd out with.

Wally seemed to come to a similar conclusion because his eyes brightened a bit too, "I mean, I've always loved chemistry the best, but physics was a close second. I took physics 1 and physics C – both AP. The teacher was great too. We did a lot of labs, but the conceptual conversations were just as awesome as the labs."

"How could conceptual conversations about physics  _not_  be just as awesome? It's physics!" Sam gushed.

He was going to keep going, but Digger playfully interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, ya big dag. We all know yer obsessed with physics. Trust me ankle-biter, get out while ya still can. If ya show even the slightest interest, he latches on and won't shut his gob until ya shut it for him."

Surprisingly, that was the thing that set Wally smiling for the first time. And even thought it was small (just a little lifting of one corner of his mouth sort of thing), it was there and it was amazing. Hartley hoped that the family would see more of that in time to come. The table settled back into conversation, but this time there was less of a stilt to it and more of its usual rambunctious nature. Wally was going to fit in great.


	3. Settling In

WWWWWW

_When Wally missed three days of school in a row and no one picked up the phone at the West residence, the teachers got worried. They called the police and directed them over to the house Wally had spent his entire life in. The police found the nine-year old covered in bruises and hiding in the linen closet. It didn't take much longer to find Rudy West passed out in the living room. Mary West was nowhere to be found, but there was a note at the kitchen counter written by her explaining all the reasons why she couldn't bear to live in that house with her drunk husband and her useless kid._

_Since Wally wouldn't tell them anything and the bruises were old enough that they could have come from someone at school, Rudy wasn't arrested for child abuse. Wally wasn't sure if he was thankful or not. Instead, Rudy was sent to a rehab center where he'd stay until the doctors there thought he was prepared enough to handle a child. In the meantime, Wally, whose mother still couldn't be found, was sent to live with his elusive Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry. He knew who they were and he'd met them, but they just didn't visit all that often, especially after they got married. And they never were able to stay for long, always being pulled away for their jobs. So Wally just didn't know them all that well. And now he had to live with them. He wasn't sure how to deal with that._

_At the moment, though, it didn't matter if he was okay with something or if he wanted to deal with it. Everyone was well-meaning and always trying so hard to help, but they never stopped and asked him what he wanted. No one bothered to check to see if he was okay with all the changes that were happening. And now here he was, standing quietly in front of his Aunt and Uncle's house. He didn't know how long he'd be there. He didn't know how long he'd want to be there. How would they treat him? Would they treat him badly like his dad? Or would be uncaring like his teachers normally were? Or would they be nice like the police officer he'd stayed with for a couple of nights while they got a hold of his Aunt and Uncle?_

_But then the door was opening and the police officer was ushering him forward, a protective hand at the small of his back. Wally blinked his eyes and tried to hide his flinch when Aunt Iris enveloped him in a hug and tried his hardest not to flinch when Uncle Barry laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. The moment the police officer was gone, Wally shrugged the hand off and hunched his shoulders, curling in on himself and trying to look submissive. This was his way of testing people. If they were nice, they'd coo over him and protect him when he hunched in. If they were uncaring, they'd just ignore the movement. If they were bad, they'd hit him for looking weak. It was an easy way to see where he stood with other people._

_But his Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry surprised him. For once in his life, someone reacted differently. His Aunt had straightened up and brushed her ginger strands back over her shoulder before pursing her lips and telling Wally flatly and firmly that he was safe in this house and that they would never lay a finger on him. She told him that the two adults would still be firm with him and still dole out punishment, but it would never be physical. And then his Uncle Barry had crouched down in front of him and told him that no matter what, the two of them would be there for Wally and they would always be someone to call and a place to live. This was different from the nice people who tried to protect him. His Aunt and Uncle weren't walking around eggshells around him and avoiding any sort of harshness so as to not set him off. They were treating him like a normal kid. They were treating him like_ their _kid, Wally thought to himself. This was what he'd always seen parents act like with the other kids at school._

_And for a moment – a brief, brief moment – Wally thought that maybe he deserved to have parents like Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry._

Wally blinked his eyes open, surprised at the lack of light in the alley. Normally he was woken up by the sun rising high enough to illuminate whatever little nook or cranny he'd found in the alleyway. But opening his eyes revealed that he wasn't in the alley anymore. Memories flooded his mind as he finally remembered where he was and what had happened. Right. He was a Rogue now. And they were going shopping today. He was going to go shopping with the Rogues. What has his life become? Groaning, Wally flopped back into the bed, turning on his side with only a small wince. For all that he had fast healing, the areas that healed were normally a little sore for a day or so. It wasn't enough to stop him from doing anything, but just enough to annoy him. Curse his inability to slowly process pain relievers.

He'd just settled back into the bedsheets when someone downstairs started screaming. "Great," Wally bemoaned to himself, "Just what I need at whatever too early time it is." Regardless of his unwillingness to leave the bed, the need to know if the Rogues were being murdered and he was next kind of outweighed his want of sleep. So Wally zipped out of bed and down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as he could. He peeked his head around a corner and couldn't help but sigh at what he saw. This place was crazy.

The one screaming was Digger and he wasn't in pain or afraid. Digger was flat out screaming bloody murder because he was mad at something James had done. How did Wally know it was James? From the brief interactions the speedster had with the group, James was the only one who could manage something that ended up with Digger's hair neon yellow, his skin neon pink, and his clothes neon green. Wally wasn't sure what the older teen had done to achieve those results, but from the way no one else was overly concerned, it was a common occurrence.

Unfortunately, Wally wasn't able to stay in his nice hiding spot for long because Mark saw him and waved, "Morning, kiddo."

Wally sighed and waved back, not really ready to hold a conversation. Or interact with people in general if he was being honest. Apparently James didn't care about that because the moment he saw the red headed speedster, James glomped him, squeezing until Wally felt like he'd never breath again. Len reached over and pried James's arms off before Mick literally gripped James by the scruff of his neck and set him down on one of those dog beds. James purred and then curled up in a ball there, turning his attention to the TV which was, for some reason, displaying My Little Ponies. Mick and Len turned to each other and rolled their eyes. Wally couldn't help the comment that slipped out, "When's the wedding?"

Mick cocked his head to the side, "I feel like you just insulted me, but I'm not sure how."

Len sent his eyes heavenward and pinched his nose before sighing and saying, "Mick and I are the only ones who can control that one-," he gestured with a thumb towards James, who was avidly watching the television, before continuing, "which is why we did that. And we work so well together because we've worked together longer than we've worked with any of the rest of you. Anything else you noticed is just a coincidence." Mark snickered in the background while Digger stomped upstairs.

Mick blinked, "I still don't get it. Did he insult us or not?"

Len sighed and walked towards the kitchen, ignoring Mick's question. Wally figured that was a pretty good idea and walked after him. He just barely heard Mick's growl when Sam asked with a snicker, "So if you're getting married, would you wear the pants in the relationship, or would Len?"

When Wally finally reached the kitchen, however, he realized that he didn't actually know where anything was and he really didn't want to go through all of the drawers until he found something suitable. That felt like not the best option with Len in there staring at him neutrally. Eventually, Len sighed and opened a door Wally hadn't noticed, showing him to the pantry. Wally nodded his thanks with only a tiny bit of a blush and wandered into the pantry, grabbing out three types of cereal and a few granola bars. He got to work putting his cereal in three separate bowls and pouring in the milk and setting up at the same seat of the table he'd sat in last night and then he dug into his food.

He heard Len sit down next to him at the head of the table, but he didn't pay it any mind. He focused in on the food he was eating and protecting it. It wasn't going to be like back on the streets where people would grab the food right out of his hands and he'd have to scuffle for it (normally losing because he couldn't show his speed). He only started paying attention to the leader of his group when the man in question said, "I'm not one for comfort or drawn out speeches or any of that nonsense. But I'm going to promise you this so you understand it now. We are not going to intentionally physically or emotionally harm you at any point in time for any reason."

The words were bitter when Wally spat them out, still not looking at Len, "Don't make promises you can't keep."

"And don't judge people before you get to know them." Len shot back emotionlessly and evenly.

"I don't have to know them to know that they'll hurt me eventually." Wally finally looked Len in the eyes and wasn't sure what to think of the fact that he didn't see any emotion in there whatsoever. He gulped quietly and went on with significantly less venom, "At first, you think that it's just some people being jerks, but then you go around and meet more people and you realize that's it's everyone. Everyone hurts me eventually. They beat me. They cheat me. They betray me. They leave me for something better. They mock me. They die. Whatever method it is, people do it. Because apparently there's something about me that's just not good enough." By the end of his little tirade, he just sounded tired and worn out. This was something that had been weighing down on him for years.

Len frowned, but just repeated, "I  _promise_  you that no one in this house is going to intentionally physically or emotionally harm you. I don't make promises lightly, kid."

Wally was thrown back to the dream he'd had this morning. Aunt Iris had said almost the same thing when he'd walked into that quaint house in Central City. She'd lied. His Aunt and Uncle had hurt him. And the Rogues were probably going to hurt him too. Wally sighed and nodded dejectedly in Len's direction. It didn't matter now. At least he had food and shelter for the time being. And they were going to train him to fight. So when they got sick of him, he would be able to run. He'd disappear and they wouldn't care. That's just how people were.

SSSSSS

Sam raised an eyebrow at the teen staring at him expectedly, "No Hartley. I am not going to go shopping with you, James, and Wally."

"No one else will go and Len said that we need to have an adult with us. Because apparently we aren't capable of going ourselves." Hartley pressed.

"You  _aren't_  capable of going yourselves. Do you remember five months ago when we let you and James go to the mall? The mall was closed for  _weeks_! You're lucky we hacked the cameras so they couldn't tell who it was who did it. You'd be banned from shopping malls for the rest of your lives." Sam said, shaking his head as he thought of the incident. It had been funny in the long run, but it certainly wasn't funny when they got Hartley's phone call about the incident.

Hartley brightened, "See? You agree. So now you have to go with us. Come on, let's go."

"You tricked me." Sam said. Hartley just nodded. Sam groaned and plunked his head against the back of the very comfortable chair he was sitting in, "Why do you hate me?"

Hartley shrugged, "I don't 'hate' you, but I do sometimes catch myself fantasizing about you being attacked by honey badgers, barefoot in a desert of legobricks, near a Bieber concert."

Sam peered at him over the newspaper he'd been reading, trying to ascertain if he was being serious or not. Deciding that he really didn't care, Sam sighed loudly and got up, folding his newspaper back up and setting it on his chair, "Alright, I'll go. Do you have money to do this?"

"Yep." Hartley said, walking away back towards the garage.

Sam muttered to himself, "You could have said thank you."

And Hartley, just because he decided to be contrary as usual, called back, "Where would the fun be in that?" Sam groaned again and headed out towards the car. This was going to be a long day.

Surprisingly, though, it wasn't as unenjoyable of an experience as Sam had thought it would be. Three hours into the trip, he still wasn't bored. Hartley, James, and Wally got along great and the snarky comments Hartley and Wally made were just made better by the random things James interjected. James had surprisingly good fashion sense when it came to other people and Hartley could leave his life of crime to be a successful interior designer the way he was putting together Wally's new room.

It hurt Sam's heart to see Wally's reactions though. The kid actually seemed to think they were going to drop him and that they were wasting all this money on him for no reason. He didn't understand that they weren't going to just leave him back in the alley now that they had him. Sure, the overall situation is weird and awkward and Digger pretty much hates Wally, but they can work through all of that. Most of all, the team is willing to work through that and Wally refuses to see that. Sam figured that was so he wouldn't get hurt, but still. The kid could open up a little. He could try a little harder to see that they cared – despite the fact that they've known him for just over twenty four hours.

And, yeah, Sam had been more than a little shocked when he opened the doorway to the mirror dimension in the chosen spot and had seen his teammates gathered around some broken body in the middle of an alleyway. And he'd been confused when they pulled the kid through the mirror with them. But then the kid had been so defensive when he was so obviously hurting and then the kid showed that he loved physics and then the kid proved the he fit with the family. There's no leaving that behind. They weren't going to drop him like a sack of hot coals because of something he may or may not do in the future. What did he even think that he was going to do that would cause them to kick him out? They knew about his speed. They all assumed he'd been abused. They were all criminals and a lot of them had gone so far as to kill people before Len came along and instituted rules against that. They were professional criminals for Pete's sake! What did the kid think he did that made him so bad? Or was it just that so many other people convinced him of that? Either way, Sam knew that it had to change. This kid needed a family who would take care of him and this family would do that.

"Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam!" James shouted from about two inches away from his face.

Grunting, Sam pushed the oldest teen away and sighed out, "What James?"

"Can we have ice cream? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please?" James bounced up and down like an excitable child and, the sad part was, Sam was so used to this that he wasn't even embarrassed.

"Sure. Let's go get some ice cream. You two want some?" Sam said. He turned to face the younger teens and let out a snort at the glare Wally was sending Hartley, "You're going to have to do better than that to intimidate anyone. That's the weakest glare I've seen in a while, kid. Besides, what did Hartley do to you?"

Wally turned that glare onto him and scowled, "Hartley said that I should be called Kid Flash for my supervillain name. Jerk."

Sam rolled his eyes and held in a snort, "And what would you suggest?"

"I don't know. Something cool like… like… Captain Charge!" Wally nodded enthusiastically.

He didn't bother to hold in his snort this time, "Kid, another Captain is the last thing we need."

Wally frowned and thought for a moment before waggling his eyebrows, "How about Lieutenant Surge?"

Sam raised his eyebrows, about to tell him off for coming up with another stupid name, but then Wally and James burst into laughter at the same time and Hartley face palmed and muttered something about hating the people he chooses to spend time with. Sam frowned and glanced around him, trying to figure out what it was that was so funny. It had to be something behind him because they were all looking in his general area when they'd burst out laughing so… Nope, he didn't see anything. Not even concerned with the fact that James had started cheerily humming some sort of song that vaguely reminded Sam of a theme song he'd heard once, Sam sighed and turned to Hartley, "What just happened?"

Hartley rolled his eyes and let out a sigh as well, "They're just being morons. Lt. Surge is a Gym Leader in Pokémon."

Not even thinking about it, Sam mutters under his breath and lightly clips Wally on the back of his head. He'd forgotten how skittish the kid was, though, and Wally scooted back away from him, laughter abruptly dying off. Sam closed his eyes momentarily to collect himself because the idea of people hurting this kid so much that he still gets scared when people lightly whack him makes him so mad he can barely see straight. Voice deceptively light, Sam said, "Come on kids. Let's go get some ice cream."

Hartley and Wally muttered rebelliously, "Not a kid." in unison and Sam was more than a little disturbed, but then James started back flipping and he had more worrisome things to be concerned about.

They settled in with their ice creams (Wally getting the largest thing possible and hoarding the food like he was dragon above his treasure trove) and it seemed like the whole slap and flinch thing had been forgotten, so Sam was feeling pretty good about the trip overall. Mind, he would have preferred to have gotten more food because, honestly, even with how much they'd been feeding Wally, the speedster was still skin and bones and there was no way they were going to be able to train him up whatsoever if he didn't have any meat on him. That super fast metabolism had to do a number on him and he was already so far behind on how much he should be eating. It was a wonder the kid was still standing.

The quartet settled into an easy rhythm of conversation and were mostly done with their food when Wally froze. The other three Rogues froze with him, glancing around and trying to figure out what it was that had set the youngest off. Not seeing anything, Sam eventually whispered, "What's wrong?"

Wally's voice sounded kind of choked when he said back, "That's my Aunt and Uncle back there. The red headed woman with the blond guy. They can't see me."

"You've got a  _family_?" Hartley hissed out.

"So do you!" Wally hissed back.

"Okay, okay you two. Calm down. We'll just take our ice cream and go then. Don't start a fight here. C'mon James. Yeah, bring those napkins." Sam responded, trying to keep the peace. He carefully studied the couple on his way out. Wally's Aunt had bright red hair that was a perfect match for Wally with green eyes that were just a few shades darker. She wore sensible, neutral toned makeup that actually served to enhance her image unlike some woman who tried their hand at makeup. She was wearing a light brown dress that went to her thighs matched the brown handbag she had over one shoulder. There were small brown heels and a dark brown scarf and belt to go with it. Overall, she appeared formal without being formal. She also looked like a woman who you didn't mess with. There were just some people out there that had this aura about them that said that they might not be powerful, but they can take you down anyways. That was this chick.

Then there was Wally's uncle. The man had pretty short blonde hair and bright blue eyes that crinkled in the corners with obvious laugh lines. His grey dress pants and white button up shirt clashed with his red hoodie and red and yellow running shoes. That was a man who didn't care what people thought about him and would do as he pleased as long as no one was hurt.

All in all, in the few moments where Sam had gotten a glimpse of Wally's family, he figured that they weren't anything special. He also didn't get the evil vibe off of them. Could it be that those innocent looking people were the ones who used to beat Wally? The thought made Sam want to turn around and punch them, but the real worry in Wally's eyes made him reconsider. He'd talk with Wally first and then decide if he wanted to hunt these people down and punch them.

The group of Rogues easily made it out to the car where Sam turned the heater on and let it sit. They were going to have this conversation now and not while he was trying to drive because that probably wouldn't end well. Hartley spoke first, "If you have a family, why are you out here living on the streets?"

"That none of your business!" Wally snapped.

"Apparently it is my business. It obviously affects me! I'd still be eating ice cream at that café if it didn't affect me." Hartley threw back, expression souring.

"Look, it doesn't matter. I overreacted. It's fine." Wally said.

"Oh, so if we go back in there and they see you, it'll be all fine then?" Sam asked, pressing for answers. Wally scowled (a common occurrence it seemed) and turned his head to the side mulishly. Sam sighed, "Wally. We can't help if you don't tell us what's wrong."

"I still don't get it! You've known me for, like, a day! Why do it matter? What are you getting out of pretending to care? Just don't bother! You'll want me gone soon enough anyways." Wally threw back, clenching his fists and staring out the windows.

James tilted his head slightly, face screwing up in confusion, "Why would we want you gone? You're part of the family!"

"No, I'm not!" Wally exploded, "People don't just become 'part of the family' overnight!"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't do things the normal way." Sam said with a small smile.

The got a little smile from Wally, "That's true."

There was silence for a few moments before Hartley asked quietly, calmly, "Why didn't you want your Aunt and Uncle to see you?"

Wally sighed, "I lived with them for a little while at one point. And it was fine and all, but then something happened and… we never really talked again. I mean, I'm pretty sure they stayed up to date with how I was doing and stuff, but then I went out into the streets and kind of disappeared off everyone's radar… I'm pretty sure they think I've been kidnapped or killed or something. Or that I ran away. I don't know. All I know is that they think I'm missing-most-likely-not-going-to-ever-be-found and that's the way I want to keep it. At this point, even if we could get past what happened, I'd just bring them trouble anyways."

The rest of the ride home was spent in silence, but it wasn't suffocating or stilted. The silence was the kind of silence that soothes over mental wounds and comforted. And, for the moment, that was all that was needed.


	4. Making Friends

DDDDDD

Robin ducked, barely missing a glancing blow of the rock that came smashing down the hillside where Superboy had just latched on to fight the villain at the top. Artemis's annoyed voice came through the mental link,  _Watch where you're going Superboy! We're still down here!_

_Then move faster_ , Superboy's grunt came through their heads. Aqualad and Robin shared a look. For all that the two of them had stood up against their mentors with Superboy at their side and said that teamwork between young heroes would be something amazing that they could use to help people, there wasn't actually all that much teamwork going on in the Young Justice League. Sure, it was better now that Robin had accepted Aqualad as the leader of the group, but the Team was still disjointed and often caused more damage than help. It was disheartening, honestly. And it was exactly what Batman had said would happen if they let a bunch of teens work together. Robin was determined to prove him wrong.

That thought in mind, Robin shot back,  _Let's focus on the battle right now. We need to make sure that none of the civilians on the other side of this hill get hurt._

_Robin is right_ , Aqualad added,  _Superboy and Zatanna – deal with the criminal. Miss Martian and Artemis – deal with any debris that might be headed towards the city. Robin and I will work on defeating the lackeys and disassembling the bomb_. After that, there wasn't any more chatter. It was only fight, fight, fight.

Robin flipping into a group of thugs, sending a group of them flying with an exploding batarang. He didn't bother dealing with the rest, trusting that Aqualad would handle them. He opened a panel on the bomb and bit back a curse at the glowing red '0 MINUTES 30 SECONDS' that blinking menacingly at him. Quickly opening a hatch on his glove and pulling out a wire with a USB at the end, finding the hidden USB port on the bomb and plugging the device in. He pulled up the bomb coding on his wrist computer and started typing furiously with his other hand, listening carefully to the battle that was happening around him. He could hear Miss Martian redirecting rocks and Artemis blowing them out of the sky with strategically shot exploding arrows. He heard the bellows of pain from the villain and the bellows of rage from Superboy and the elegant spells from Zatanna. He heard Kaldur's electrified water bearers and the thumps of unconscious bodies hitting the ground.

He would be able to detect any inconsistencies in those sounds so he'd know if he was in immediate danger, but for now, he focused on hacking into the bomb. He worked for several more seconds, resisting the urge to waste time glancing at how much time he had left. He finally got into the inner workings of the bomb. The red numbers blinked '0 MINUTES 13 SECONDS' in response. He felt like there was something to be said for the fact that he glanced over when it was at the number 13. Ominous much? Robin grit his teeth and kept going. The sounds of battle wound down around him. Fingers flew across the keyboard. Red numbers blinked accusingly at him from his peripheries. Coding danced in front of his eyes. He could hear a baby wailing from the city below. There were only a few lines of code left. Artemis cried out in pain. One more line of code. A whole city holding its breath below him, his friends fighting to make sure that he didn't get distracted. He was the last line of defense. The bomb was going to explode. It was going to take out everything in a mile-wide radius. He wasn't going to let it.

The numbers stopped counting down.

Robin didn't give himself a moment to relax before he was flipping away from the device and taking out a thug who was going for Aqualad's blind spot. The team leader gave him a nod of approval and Robin nodded back before mentally sending out,  _The bomb is disabled._

He felt more than heard the exhales of relief from the people around him. Despite the fact that they didn't have quite the right chemistry to work together on a team, they did trust each other to do their jobs correctly. They had to. With this job, every day was putting your life on the line and you can't do everything at once. There had to be some level of trust. Unfortunately, trust does not equal teamwork.

At the very least, they were able to take down the boss and hold him until ARGUS arrived. Amanda Waller herself showed up to take the creature to Belle Reeve. She glanced at the team of teenaged superheroes with something akin to amusement. Robin wasn't sure if he was reading that right, though. It was hard to read that woman. There was something about her that transcended human emotion. For her job, that was probably a good thing. For the world… well, they'd had to wait that out to see.

The Team trudged back to the bioship, M'gann letting it go onto autopilot – the ship knew where home was. Everyone relaxed back into their chairs, finally ready to take a breather after that intense battle. At least, that was their plan before Kaldur spoke up, "We need to talk about the future of this team."

"What's there to talk about?" Artemis grouched, frowning, "We're successful on the field. What else is there to it?"

Kaldur frowned back, but kept his voice even, "You are right. We are successful, but that might not be enough someday. We always win – but it is a narrow margin of win. There are countless moments where, if we were to work better together, people would not get injured. We need to work on our teamwork skills. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what activities we could participate in to achieve this?"

Artemis guffawed from her seat near M'gann before quieting once she realized that he was serious. Dick wasn't sure how he felt about this. On the one hand, they would be significantly better if they learned to work together, but on the other hand… he was a Bat and Bats worked alone. They didn't play well with others. He wasn't sure what trust exercises would entail in this messed up group, but if it required him to tell them about himself, he couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. And that might be part of the problem.

M'gann clapped delightedly from the front seat, "I have heard wonderful things from the television about the healing power of shopping! We should go to the mall together!"

Artemis looked like she was caught between groaning and nodding (which was a really weird expression to see). Conner looked vaguely constipated as if he wasn't quite sure what expression was appropriate in this situation. Zatanna seemed almost as delighted as M'gann. And Kaldur was nodding. He glanced at Dick, subtly tilting his head to the side: did Dick think this was a good idea? After a second of thought, Dick nodded slightly back to him. This shouldn't blow his secret ID and it should help the team at least a little. Besides, who didn't love a little shopping?

It didn't take long to get permission from the mentors to go on a shopping trip. Barry was easily persuaded to be their adult chaperone (as long as they went shopping in Central so he could still be around his city in case of a problem). Bruce was moderately difficultly persuaded to give them one of his anonymous, practically limitless credit cards. Each of them changed into civvies (Dick had his glasses to hide his identity, Megan had changed her skin to the human tan, and Kaldur was wearing a turtle neck to hide the gills) and went through the zeta beam transporters. Off to the shopping mall!

WWWWWW

Wally wandered down from his room (and wasn't that weird? He was still getting used to the idea and he'd been with the Rogues for over a week now), idly scratching the back of his neck with one hand and covering a yawn with the other. He blinked blearily at Digger and waved slightly. The Australian narrowed his eyes for a moment before waving back and turning to watch whatever it was he was watching on TV. Wally didn't recognize the show, but he and Digger had bonded over their love of historical documentaries a day or two after the mall trip. It had kind of soothed over whatever it was that didn't click between them those first two days. Now, Wally can't even remember what it was about the boomerang slinging man that had grated on his nerves. Digger couldn't help but agree. Honestly, Digger was becoming one of his favorite uncles (?) with Sam not that far behind. Wally wasn't really sure where everyone stood in this family, but he'd have to say that James was the baby of the family and Hartley was the exasperated older brother and Wally was the middle kid who was still trying to find his place. Sam was the cool uncle who didn't care. Mark was the uncle who tried but somehow managed to make whatever situation it was worse which only made him that much more awesome in the eyes of the kids. Digger was the uncle who was around more often and had all sorts of wicked stories to tell. Len was the dad and Mick was the mom - not that Wally would ever say that to either of them; he'd be pummeled. Except, he wouldn't actually be pummeled.

It'd taken him a week to stop flinching so much every time one of the Rogues got a little too close, but he was getting there. He still wasn't all that comfortable with anyone initiating contact and he certainly didn't initiate any contact of his own, but still. He was getting better and, according to the others, that was all that mattered. Honestly, it scared Wally a little how much he was coming to rely on this family he'd been unorthodoxly adopted into. All the images of how he was supposed to be treated that people had painted for him in his own blood and tears were being washed away and replaced with something a lot brighter and it scared him. How could it not? How could he possibly not be terrified of the thought that everything he'd been forced to learn his entire life wasn't true?

He couldn't trust people. They would hurt him. They would hate him. They secretly hated him from the moment they met him. No one wanted him. There was no place for him in this world. The world would be better off without him. Freak metahumans like him didn't belong. He didn't have any common sense. He wasn't good enough. He only brought danger and troubles for people who pretended to care for him.

That was what the world was supposed to be like. That was what his world had  _always_  been like. Except now it was more like:

No one is going to hurt him. He's an impressive runner. He could seriously help them on this heist or that one. He's a really fast learner – he might even be ready to start going on heists in a couple weeks. There's a good head on his shoulders. He'd always have a place here. Metahumans are so awesome and really balance out the playing field when going up against someone like the Flash. He  _was_  good enough.

And, as terrifying as that all was, it was kind of awesome too.

"Look! It's alive!" Mark joked from his spot at the dining table.

Wally sent him the finger and ended up sighing when Len commented idly, "Not at the table." He was flipping through some schematics and staring intently at two different sets of blueprints both displaying the same building. He was trying to make sure that the blueprints they had showed all the details of the building – no crook wants to be surprised by a secret room that wasn't on the map. Most of the time, those sorts of rooms led to more trouble than they were worth.

"Seriously though, you take teenage oversleeping to a whole new level. Here, eat some of this – I'm trying out a few new recipes. Let me know how they taste." Mick said, setting a (large) variety of breakfast foods in front of a not-really-awake Wally. He nodded to cover his yawn and settled into the food, humming his appreciation at whatever the pancake-waffle-ice-cream-fruit-cinnamon thing was that he bit into first.

Hartley chipped in with, "Even I don't sleep this late."

"Come on guys, it's science. Don't you know the rule? Objects in motion stay in motion. Objects at rest stay at rest. A resting teen stays at rest. Right Wally?" Sam said, walking in, winking at Wally, and tapping a spot on the blueprints as he went to grab breakfast. The spot he tapped on the blueprints was a discrepancy between the two – one of those secret rooms. Len growled to himself and erased something out of his 'Heist Book'.

Wally nodded enthusiastically (at least, as enthusiastically as a not-morning-person who's still not quite awake could) and mumbled into his biscuit-sugar-chocolate-chip-bacon-hash-brown thing, "Yeah. It's inertia. And momentum. That stuff. Force. Physics. Science stuff. Something. I promise I'm smart. Oh, and Mick? This is a no go. I don't know what it is, but it hurts my soul to eat it." Mick nodded back at him and swept the rest of the biscuit-sugar-chocolate-chip-bacon-hash-brown horror into a garbage can.

James bounced in the room and asked, "Momentum? Is that your new supervillain name?"

"Is that my  _what_?" Wally yawned.

Sam stopped and frowned thoughtfully, "That would actually work."

"It fits him well enough." Hartley added.

"It sounds legit too – not dorky." Digger called from the other room. Wally wasn't entirely certain how he'd heard them. He was kind of impressed.

Mick started wrapping up the things Wally had approved, saving them for another day. He threw in, "I like it."

Mark yawned in agreement, "Yep."

Wally blinked at them all, not entirely certain what just happened. Then Len announced emotionlessly, "Well, kid, it looks like your new supervillain name is Momentum. Congratulations."

"I… what?" Wally said, trying desperately to stay awake. Whatever Len ended up responding with, Wally didn't hear it, already drifting back through the land of sleep, dreaming of Momentum and his new family.

When he woke up again about an hour later, he was back in his own bed. He wrinkled his nose. The Rogues knew he hated it when people came into his room without asking him first. This was the first time since he left Aunt Iris's and Uncle Barry's that he'd had a place to himself that felt safe. And having them come and go freaked him out. Mind, he was still grateful that someone had taken the time to lug him upstairs and dump him in his bed, but still. It was the principle of the thing.

Stretching languidly like a cat, Wally rolled out of bed (and narrowly avoiding tipping too far forward and face-planting the ground) and brushed his teeth, quickly changing into some running pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt for running in. It had been a while since he'd just jogged around the city (human speed of course) and he needed it today to clear his head. The Rogues had certainly given him a lot to think about.

He trudged downstairs to find the house strangely quiet. Wally frowned at his uneasiness, instantly walking on the balls of his feet and coiling his muscles in anticipation of an attack, fists loosely curled into correctly formed fists, all like the Rogues had taught him.

It all turned out for naught, however, because he walked into the living room to see Len still pouring over his schematics and cold gun and lists of figures. There was a lot more that went into heists than Wally would have ever thought there was. Len didn't even look up before saying, "The others are out on a heist except for Hartley – he's at school practicing for a band concert in a few days. Look at the paper over there. That's a sketch for an idea for a villain suit. If you like it great. If you don't, think of one yourself. It doesn't matter to me because I didn't come up with it."

Wally blinked at the barrage of information, vaguely remembering the conversation from earlier this morning when they decided his villain name would be Momentum. That was actually a pretty cool name. He certainly couldn't complain. He sprawled out on a chair and picked up the sketch, raising his eyebrows at the detail that went into designing this. He didn't know who drew it, but they had some serious talent. Little details popped out at him. The skin-tight suit was all a bright, lightning strike yellow with bright red accents. Over his chest was a bright red circle with two arc flowing off the top, culminating in their own circles*. There were red arm guards around his wrists and red compartments on his upper arms and upper thighs. There were red lightning strike jutting over his hips and a yellow mask that left his red hair free. The bottom half of his face was free, but his eyes were covered with a domino-mask like thing that merged into the cowl that fitted over his ears. There was a comms device built into the ear pieces which were red muffs with the red sigil that was on his chest coming out the sides of his head.

Overall, he loved it. "This is perfect, Len! Who made this? They're  _awesome_." Wally gushed, glancing over the details and filling in a few of the measurements that had been left blank (he remembered his measurements from when he'd been fitted for a tux that he apparently had to have when they'd gone on their shopping trip the other day).

"Sam." Len answered distractedly before he looked up and narrowed his eyes at Wally, "What are you wearing?"

"Clothes." Wally answered defensively. He didn't like that tone.

Len sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Do you plan to go somewhere?"

"Yeah. I'm going for a run." Wally said, standing up and moving towards the closet where they kept all the shoes. There was a big shoe rack and each person in the family got a column except for James who had two. Wally picked out the pair of tennis shoes he'd been breaking in by wearing around the house. It would probably be good to really break them in with a good run.

"Did I give you permission to?" Len asked sharply, voice more calculating than mad or irritating. That alone made Wally wary. As much as he thought that this family was amazing, there were moments when he was reminded that these people aren't always as nice as he sees them being.

Wally started tying his shoes, hunching his shoulders and muttering, "I'm not a  _prisoner_ here. I can go whenever I want."

"Want to bet?" Len asked. This time there was definitely a note of danger in that tone and that made Wally freeze more than anything. He turned wide emerald eyes onto Len, fingers vibrating ever so slightly. Len sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again, "Just. Just let someone know where you're going before you go. Don't just leave. What path are you taking?"

"Uh, I, um, I don't have to go if you don't want me to." Wally said, hunched slightly into himself. He was planning on running to the place he always ran when he needed to think things over. He didn't want to tell Len about that. Not yet.

"Wally." Len said seriously, "Do you want to go?" He waited until Wally nodded before continuing, "Then you can go. That's what matters. I want to make sure you don't get hurt. I understand if you don't want to tell me where you're going. Just make sure that you have your phone with you and that you're back by dinner time, alright? I'm sorry I snapped at you."

But Len hadn't snapped at Wally. Not really. Not in the traditional sense of the word at least, but Wally realized that the deadly cold that had crept through Len's words was the man's own way of snapping at people and, really, that was one of the more terrifying things Wally had experienced. So he mumbled something – he wasn't even sure what – and jogged out the door.

The moment he started running, all of that left his mind. Trying to fit in with the Rogues – gone in a few pounding steps. Doing his best to not be afraid of them – swept away with the wind. Being afraid of not being afraid of them – left behind at the last turn. Not understanding  _why_  – forgotten through the thrill of running. He wasn't going all out. He wasn't anywhere  _near_  going all out, but it still took all his concentration anyways. The Speed Force in his veins  _itched_  to be let out and he had to work to wrestle it all underneath his skin, not letting it out like it begged him to. And sure, running all out would be fun, but sometimes it was nice to feel normal. Sometimes it was better to feel normal than it was to feel special.

He ran. He ran and ran and kept running, covering the length of the city as he did so, relishing in the feeling of wind ruffling his bright red hair and nodding respectfully to other ambitious runners that followed similar paths as he did.

Even with Wally doing his best to restrain his speed, he still ended up at the city park a lot faster than he should have and a lot less out of breath than he should have been. It didn't arouse anyone's suspicions, though, so he was fine.

Taking a gulp of water from the bottle he had clenched in his hand, Wally slumped onto his favorite park bench, closing his eyes and tipping his face up towards the sunlight. He hadn't been in the right mind space to go on runs recently and he'd been pretty busy training and learning about the family and any travel between safe houses was normally done via mirror dimension, so Wally hadn't really been outside since the mall trip and even then it was only a few moments. For someone who'd lived on the streets for a good while, that was quite a big change. Resting on a park bench in the sunlight where it was easy to be ignored because everyone just assumed that you were where you were supposed to be felt normal. It felt  _right_. He wasn't sure if that would change. He wasn't sure if he wanted it to.

"Anyone sitting here?" A young amused voice asked from the side. Wally opened his eyes and shook his head wordlessly, observing the boy who sat next to him. The kid couldn't be more than thirteen, fourteen years old and he had raven black hair and tan skin. He was wearing a hoodie and jeans and a dark pair of glasses that covered his eyes entirely.

The kid was wearing a smirk that looked a little scary for his age, but he stuck out a hand and the smirk turned a little more genuine. Wally took it and smiled back, albeit less friendly. The kid raised his eyebrows at the grip Wally provided (Wally was fighting off his own incredulous expression; this kid had an impressively strong handshake) and said, "I'm Freddie**. Pleasure to meet you." The name sounded just a hint too rushed and it set off Wally's own little personal lie detector. He didn't really care, though. He understood the idea of making sure no one knew who you really were. There were some mean and talented people on the streets who could do a lot with a name, even just a first name.

That's why he didn't feel bad when he responded evenly with, "John, and likewise."

The smirk he got in response told Wally that this Freddie kid knew exactly what had just gone through Wally's head and it was more than a little disconcerting, but Wally didn't let it get to him. This was his special place and he was just a kid out for a run today, not a homeless wreck, not a Rogue. Just a kid.

At least, until Freddie started talking again, "What brings you out here today?"

"I was out for a run. I'm taking a break. How about you?" Wally tried to divert the attention away from him.

It didn't work; Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked, "From what I saw, you hadn't been sitting here very long. You don't seem all that out of breath or sweaty for having just gone on a run."

Wally didn't dignify that with an answer, choosing instead to redirect the conversation, "Do you often interrogate strangers on park benches, or am I just special?"

Freddie laughed quietly. For a moment, the two sat there in silence. Wally observed the others around him, relaxing even further into the park bench. Through a group of trees, he could see flashes of a group of teenagers. There were three girls – a cute red head, a hot blonde chick with some sort of Asian heritage, and a pretty black haired girl. Then there were two guys – one was dark skinned with pale hair and a turtleneck, the other was a hunk of a teen with black hair and big blue eyes. It was certainly a strange medley of people, but they seemed to be getting along pretty well. Kind of like the Rogues. They were all so different but yet somehow they worked.

Freddie spoke up again, "That was an impressive shot."

"What?" Wally asked, craning his head to try to whatever it was that Freddie just commented on.

Freddie jutted his chin to the side, "Basketball game. They've got some skilled players in there."

"You play?" Wally asked idly. That was the polite thing to do, right?

"Nope." Freddie snorted, "I'm more of a mathlete kind of kid."

"Hey, me too! Well, I was more of the Science Olympiad side of things, FRC, HOSA, those kind of things, but same!" Wally threw in, turning a little bit so he was actually facing the person he was talking with.

He was met with black disks that just reflected himself back at him, the sun winking off those dark sunglasses. Freddie smiled and said, "Somehow I figured."

Wally narrowed his eyes, "I'm a nerd and proud. I refuse to talk offense to that!"

The kid laughed and put his hands up in an innocent gesture, "No offence meant. Trust me, I relate. People peg me as a nerd all the time."

"Plebeians." Wally sniffed imperiously.

That finally startled a real laugh out of Freddie and, quite frankly, that laugh was scary.  _That_  was  _not_  a normal laugh. Wally's bamboozled expression apparently amused Freddie enough that he was sent into a fresh wave of cackles. And Wally was always the kind of person to laugh when others started laughing, so it didn't take long for him to join in. And, honestly, the situation was pretty funny. Every time their laughter started to die off, they would glance to each other and start off a new round of giggles and cackles that would only be compounded by more. By the time they finally stopped laughing for good, they were both wheezing, panting messes. In between breaths, Freddie snickered, "That just made my day. I thought today was going to end up whelming, but that made up for everything."

Wally blinked at him, "Whelming?"

"There are things that are  _over_ whelming and things that are  _under_ whelming, so doesn't it make sense that there would be things that are just whelming?" Freddie asked seriously.

Wally thought about it, mulling over the presented situation in his mind, "Yes, yes it does. There are a lot of word like that, actually. You should start a movement to get the forgotten and neglected words added into the dictionary."

That delighted cackle came back and Wally grinned at Freddie, happy that he made this kid happy. Freddie grinned back, "You are totally asterous – the opposite of disastrous by the way. Man, I never thought I'd find someone as awesome as you sitting on a park bench here."

"Where else would you find someone as… asterous as me?" Wally responded with a wink, before continuing, "Besides, what were you doing that was so awful anyways?"

Freddie paused for a moment before saying, "Well, my friends and I aren't as close as we used to be and our parents decided that we needed to do some 'team building exercises' to get closer again. So we went on an extreme shopping trip – and by extreme, I mean we had to drop the bags off at the car several times throughout the day otherwise we wouldn't have been able to carry all the bags. And then we just had to go get ice cream and then we had to go to the park. Those're my friends over there." He pointed with his head again to the group of kids that Wally had noticed earlier in the day.

From what he was seeing of them playing through the trees, this team building exercise had worked pretty well, but, "Don't team building exercises require all members of the 'team'? Won't your friends miss you? Or won't your parents get mad that you didn't hang out with them?"

Freddie shrugged easily, "They haven't even noticed I'm gone and I was there for most of the time anyways. I'm pretty sure they don't need me beating them at their own game." The smirk was back as he kept talking, "And besides, my dad won't care that I didn't spend the whole time with them, especially not if I'm making a new friend here."

"A new friend?" Wally asked dryly.

"Yep. You're my new friend. It's official." Freddie announced.

Wally's eyebrows rose, "You are aware that you're likely to never see me again, right?"

Freddie frowned thoughtfully before brightening, "Eh, it's the thought that counts. And you don't know that – we could end up seeing each other again. You don't know that we won't."

"And you don't know that we will." Wally pointed out.

"You're just determined to crush my hopes, aren't you?" Freddie sighed before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, writing a number on it with a flourish before announcing, "There. That's my number. Now we can hang out again sometime." Wally took the slip of paper bemusedly, not really sure how to respond to this. He'd never gotten a friend's phone number before. Scratch that, he'd never  _had_ a friend before. No one had ever sat there and said 'you're my friend'. James and Hartley were different because they were his brothers now, his teammates, his comrades. This Freddie person was something Wally had never come across before. Unfortunately, there was a lot of that going around recently.

He never got a chance to respond, however, because he turned to see Freddie waving to someone and when he turned to see who it was that Freddie was trying to get the attention of, he realized that it was none other than his Uncle Barry. This was getting ridiculous! He ran into Uncle Barry three weeks ago when he stole from a Rogue. He ran into Uncle Barry a week ago when he was out eating ice cream with the Rogues. Now he ran into him here when he was meeting a new friend! Was he just Fate's plaything? Was his life just an eternal amusement for some greater being? Wally turned and ran.

All his new friend would have felt was a brush of wind and, when he turned to look at the redhead, he would realize that the teen wasn't there. Wally was already gone.


	5. First Job

DDDDDD

Dick frowned thoughtfully at the spot where 'John' had been just a second ago. Where could he have even gone? Was he a metahuman? He left fast and silent and there was the part that he hadn't seemed out of breath at all when he'd stopped at the park bench despite obviously having been running for a while. He obviously didn't give Dick his real name and he tried to deflect most of the questions about himself, instead focusing on Dick. What was he hiding? Why did Dick give him the number to one of his burner phones?

Barry's hand came down on Dick's shoulder and Barry's bright blue eyes came into view pretty soon after, "What's up kiddo? That's a pretty intense look you've got there."

Dick paused for a moment before, "I don't know. That kid I was just talking to was weird. He didn't tell me his real name and he wouldn't answer any questions about himself and he left as soon as he saw you were coming over here." Dick frowned again. What was it about the ginger that had made him leave his phone number with him? He never did that! Sure, it was a burner phone and wasn't currently being used for anything else, but still!

Barry's face was sad when he responded, "He's probably a street kid. I've talked to a few of them on patrols or during a case at the station. They're pretty skittish. Adults are often a no go. Capes are half and half with them. It's hard to tell if they'll want to be the hero or hate the hero. The street kids almost never give out their real name. I've seen competitions started with some of my confidants. They try to give different names to everyone they talk to and see how long they last without someone meeting another person who calls them by a different name. Basically, they try to see how many aliases they can cultivate before one of them gets burned. Its impressive how long some of them can last. What name did you give him?"

"Freddie." Dick answered distractedly before saying, "But he didn't look like a street kid. He had pretty nice clothes on – they actually looked really new."

"Recently-rescued-from-the-street kid then? I don't know. Just from what you described he acts like a street kid or former street kid." Barry shrugged easily, "Why are you so worked up about this kid anyways?"

Dick glanced back in the direction he presumed John had left to, "I don't know. I honestly do not know."

WWWWWW

Wally was back at the current safe house within moments, but the tread on his shoes now looked like he'd been using them to run marathons for a year. Fantastic. Especially after Len was mad at him. Well, maybe not. Kind of mad. Wally didn't even know. He hadn't gotten the chance to just relax and think at the bench like he'd been planning on. Instead that 'Freddie' person had talked to him. There was something about him. Something that niggled on the back of Wally's mind, but he just couldn't make the connection. Ah well, why did it really matter? He wasn't going to text him or whatever anyways. Freddie wasn't actually his friend. No one actually wanted to be his friend. Without a second thought, Wally threw the piece of paper down the incinerator. It was one opening in the wall between several others. There was a trash can, a recycling bin for plastic, a recycling bin for paper, a broken glass container, a recycling bin for metal, a bin for things to throw in the compost bucket in the garden, an incinerator, and a shredder. The Rogues were weird.

He made it to the kitchen where Mick was humming over the stove, apron on and an oven glove on one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. Wally walked over to the stove to peer into the pot, "'Sup Mick?"

"Cooking." Mick grunted back.

"Whatcha cooking?" Wally asked, curious. He couldn't actually tell.

"Gumbo." Mick grunted back.

"Cool." Wally said, "Need any help?"

"Nope." Mick grunted back.

"Alright. See you later." Wally said. Mick just waved the spoon in farewell. He was always like that when he was cooking.

Next Wally made it to the stairs and was about to start climbing them to get to his room, but Mark's excited shouting made him stop. Curious, he took his foot off the stairs and tilted back a little bit so he could look into the living room. Wally wasn't sure what was playing on the TV, but Mark was engrossed. He was hanging on the edge of his seat and shouting for two of the characters to get over themselves and start dating already. The two mentioned characters were moments away from kissing when the channel switched to a commercial and Mark cried out in what sounded like actual anguish before flopping back into his chair. Wally just shook his head and started up the stairs. His family was insane.

It didn't really register what he had just thought to himself until he was already in his room with the door closed (he didn't feel bad about doing that because Hartley always had his door closed and his music blaring). Huh, he actually thought of them as his family. It came sub-consciously, so he must already be okay with this new development. And really, why was Wally fighting it? Why was he fighting so hard against accepting his role as part of this messed up family? A knock sounded from the door before Wally could even try to continue down that mental rabbit hole. He raised his head, "Who is it?"

"It's Len, kid. Mick said you got in. Can I come in?" Len asked emotionlessly as usual. Wally wasn't sure if he wanted him to come in. Would Len even leave if he said that he couldn't come in? Did Wally want to find out?

So Wally called out, "It's unlocked. Come on in."

Len wasted no time in walking in and dropping a large (yet light) box on Wally's lap, causing him to let out an oomph. Captain Cold then made himself comfortable in one of the chairs located around the room and watched Wally expectantly. Getting the hint, Wally tore open the box on his lap, reverently pulling out the material. It was his suit. It was his brand-new villain suit. His suit as the Rogue speedster Momentum. Because he was a supervillain now. And honestly, that was the coolest thing. His whole family were supervillains and now he was one too. Len started talking while Wally ran his fingers over the smooth material, "I sent in the drawing with the measurements since you filled out the rest of them while you were looking at it. The person we have make our suits is fast and was able to get this to us already. We only hire the best after all. The adults have talked and we've decided that your training was coming along well enough that we feel good about you coming on a heist with us next week. Of course, you'll be practicing non-stop and we'll be drilling you on the order and you'll help with all the prep, but you'll be going on your first heist if you're interested."

Going on a heist with the Rogues? Interested? Yes and yes. Scared, though? Absolutely yes. Like he'd said when he'd started, he wasn't a supervillain. He only stole for necessity, not for fun. And now here he was about to do a full-scale operation with some of the best of the best. He hoped he wouldn't mess it all up. What if they were all caught because of him? Was he really ready for this? He probably wasn't going to be fast enough. He was going to do something dumb. He already knew he was going to mess this up.

Len's voice cut through his internal self beat down, "Look kid, we've been training you for a week. In that week, you've come farther than any of us could have imagined because you've got a smart head on those shoulders and you've kept yourself in shape. You're finally getting up to the right body weight since we've been feeding you enough. You know what to do and how to do it. You'll have the rest of the heist team right there with you. It's an easy heist. You won't mess it up."

Wally wanted to ask if it was that obvious that he doubted himself that much. He wanted to ask if any of the others felt this way about their first heists. He wanted to ask how Len knew that he was going to do alright. Instead, he asked, "What's the job?"

Len nodded approvingly and pulled out a blank Flash themed composite notebook. He handed it to a very confused Wally before explaining, "You're first Heist Book." Wally glared at him as Len handed him a lightning themed pen to go with it. Ha ha. Hilarious. Len smirked before drawling, "For heists you don't plan, which will be most of them, you'll write down what the leader – me this time and most times – says about the job and your role in it. If you can write fast enough, and I'm sure you can, then you write down other people's roles too. If not, you ask them later. I know Sam records me when I go over the plan and plays it back later to write in his Heist Book and make sure he gets all the details. You can do it however you want as long as you get rid of everything but the Heist Book at the end. This book should become your most prized and protected possession. Anyone else finding this would be very bad as I'm sure I don't have to tell you." Wally nodded and Len started to describe the heist.

It was going to be in three days and it would be an attack on the hotel where Oliver Queen, his girlfriend Dinah Lance, and his adopted son Roy Harper were staying and it wasn't supposed to be a spectacle. If it went according to plan, no one would even know that it was the Rogues who pulled the job. The Queen Party was supposed to be out visiting a friend until late into the night – midnight or so. The job would be run at 10:00pm sharp. Any later and there was risk of them returning during the job. Any earlier and there would be too much traffic in and out of the hotel.

It was, like Len said, an easy job. Only Len, Sam, Hartley, and Wally would be on this job. Visitors to the city weren't as careful about having mirrors near their valuables as the people of the city, so Sam would be able to pull himself and Wally into the room where the Queen Part was staying. The bathroom mirror was plenty large. Hartley would have already disabled the cameras in the rooms after ascertaining that no one was in there. Sam would wait by the mirrors and be ready to pull Wally back through. Wally would rush through the hotel room and grab anything valuable. It was a simple grab and go that anyone with the ability to travel through the mirror dimension and hack cameras could have done. The Rogues had done it hundreds of times with visiting celebrities. There was nothing to it. Sam had orders to go through the mirrors and grab Len and Hartley to help at the first sign of trouble, but no one was expecting it. All in all, Wally was glad that this would be his first heist. He wasn't sure if he could do something big and public as his first stunt. That would have been too much too soon. This was perfect.

Except it wasn't. Sure, it started off fine. The suit fit like a glove and running in it was the most beautiful thing Wally had ever experienced. He'd been so happy that he hadn't even cared how embarrassing it was that he was racing around laughing like a little kid. The Rogues had smiled about it anyways and didn't even make fun of him, so that was a plus. It really was cool to run and not have to worry about setting your clothes on fire, though. And the  _shoes_. He knows he sounds like some popular teenage girl when he says that, but  _seriously_. Running with those shoes on was like running through gold. The ground was little more than a cloud and every lift of his foot was a gentle caress of supportive wind. How could he not love this outfit?

Pied Piper and Captain Cold scoped the room and said that there was an all-clear. The cameras went out and Mirror Master and Momentum went into the room. Momentum took a nanosecond to observe the room in full detail. The bathroom itself was unbelievably huge and full of tons of expensive stuff and the room he could see through the open bathroom door was just as rich and extravagant. Wally didn't think he'd been in as expensive a place in his entire life. And then he let the world slow around him and waited for Mirror Master's hand signal that would mean that he was good to go. After receiving it, he started running through the hotel, time slowing around him so he could properly dig through each of the drawers and put things back nicely – he was a considerate thief at least.

It didn't take him long to collect a bag of things that the Rogues had showed him to collect and then a few more things that he was certain would catch some good money on the black market. He whispered under his breath, "Time check?"

Mirror Master whispered back (although it sounded as if he was talking normal volume right next to him; Pied Piper was pretty awesome with his tech), "You've got two minutes. You're doing great kid."

Momentum inwardly grinned at the praise and started to go through the rest of the rooms. He'd only made his way through about half of them and hadn't even reached the bedroom, but he had plenty of time. And that was when everything went downhill.

An arrow came spinning out of nowhere. Wally was lucky he was turned in the direction of the arrow and was able to move to the side a little bit so he didn't get skewered. Mirror Master's voice was concerned when it sounded in Wally's ear, "What was that?"

Momentum didn't answer because there was a very angry looking crimson archer stalking towards him. And seriously? Wasn't he supposed to be in Star City or something? What was he doing here in Central in Queen's hotel room? Did Queen bring him here? The archer growled, "Who are you?"

Momentum froze. They hadn't gone over what to do in this situation. They hadn't expected a freaking  _archer_ to show up out of nowhere. Captain Cold's even voice in his ear calmed him immediately, "Tell him."

"I'm Momentum, from the Rogues." Wally tried to put some of his inner teenage rebelliousness into the statement. He wasn't sure how much actually came out.

The archer growled out another question, "What are you doing here?"

Wally didn't need Cold's guidance for this one, "What are  _you_  doing here?"

"I'm the one asking the questions!" Speedy hissed.

"Yeah, but so am I." Wally stated with a shrug, shifting to lean against the wall casually. What he was really aiming for was a position that would be good to push off with to make sure that he could get past the archer without getting shot or something. He'd heard of team-ups between Green Arrow, Speedy, and Flash before, so he wouldn't be surprised if Speedy knew how to hit a running speedster. And the room was rather enclosed, so there wasn't a lot of room for Momentum to build up a lot of speed.

The archer growled at him again, "Stop mouthing off. Put the bag of stolen items on the ground and put your hands behind your head. You're new so you probably won't get that much of a prison sentence for this. You can get out and start a new life doing the right thing." Was he trying to talk Wally down? Seriously?

Wally guffawed, "Says the vigilante?"

"I'm a hero!" Speedy defended.

Wally raised an eyebrow, "Sidekick."

"I'm not a sidekick!" Speedy growled.

"You're definitely a sidekick." Wall decided, nodding his head.

"I'm trying to help you!" Speedy exploded.

Wally tilted his head to the side, "You're not doing a very go-," Halfway through the word, he started to run. He finished it as he flew past the archer who was turning too slow, "od job of it." There was no way Speedy would be able to get his shot lined up fast enough. Momentum was already out of the room. He could hear Speedy cursing behind him as he grabbed Mirror Master's hand and let himself get pulled into the mirror. Gotta love super speed.

What he didn't have to love at the moment was the mirror dimension. Despite the fact that they used the mirror dimension to go a lot of places and they practiced moving through the thing so they wouldn't be detrimentally disoriented during a job or something, it still wasn't a pleasant experience. Wally didn't think it ever would be.

The moment they stopped at the closest Rogue hideout, Sam was lifting Wally up and checking him over for injuries. Wally swatted his hands away, "I'm fine Sam. He didn't hit me with the arrow or anything."

"With the arrow?" Len asked, voice low and dangerous.

"Yeah. Speedy was there for some reason. In the apartment. That I was told was clear." Wally shot back, a lump in his throat that he came from a mix of bad emotions. He was embarrassed that he was caught. He was terrified that he was almost caught. He was angry that there was someone in the room when he was assured that no one would be. That shouldn't have happened! Len had said that the other Rogues were there and that everything would go fine and here he was messing up his first heist. He  _knew_  he was useless.

Hartley stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry Wally. I swear the place was empty. I don't know how I missed him."

"Whatever. I'm going for a run." Wally said, fists clenched at his sides. Why did he think he could do this? He should just go and grab his stuff and leave. It would be better than waiting for them to kick him out. Because as soon as news traveled back to the rest of the Rogues about how useless he was, they would want to get rid of him. He wasn't worth what they spent on him. And sure, he got some loot, but not even half of what they were planning to get out of this. And now the secret weapon of Momentum was out where they wanted to keep it a secret. He was so stupid!

Sam's hand on his shoulder stopped him, "Just wait for a moment Wally."

"I'm going for a run." Wally ground out and wrenched his shoulder from Sam's grip.

"Wally." And there was Len's terrifying icy cold tone that had made Wally stop in his tracks last time. Wally vaguely heard the sound of Hartley whacking Len before the leader of the group spoke again, this time with a softer voice, "Wally, just sit with us and talk about this. It's fine."

"It may be fine for you, but not for me. Look, I get it. I messed up so you don't want me anymore but you want to break the news nicely. There's no breaking it nicely, okay? Whatever." Wally threw back, that lump in his throat growing. He was out the door before the others could even suck in a breath of air. Whatever. He didn't have to deal with that. It wasn't his problem. He was prepared for this. He never unpacked his backpack of supplies (although he did trade out some of his old things for newer ones), so he was ready to go.

It didn't take long for him to zoom into the main safe house and grab the backpack (and if he stuck a picture of the Rogues that was sitting on his desk into one of the pockets, then there was no one around to call him on it). He was out of the door again before any of the Rogues in the living room could tell what happened.

Wally found one of his old, old haunts and settled into the familiar little nook between two dumpsters that he'd found early on when he moved into the city. One dumpster was used primarily by a super fancy restaurant that threw out a lot of pretty good meals because they had picky customers and the other was used by some flower place, so the smell wasn't that bad and there was normally food in there enough to partially satiate a growing speedster, so this place was amazing. He'd been caught out by a local gang though and asked to move. He'd left that day because no one wants to get on the bad side of a local gang. It had been a while, though, so he was probably safe using it again for tonight. Maybe he'd even just take a brief nap. It was pretty late…

_Wally had been staying with Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry for a while now. His tenth birthday had come and gone and, honestly, it was the best one he'd ever had. He hadn't even realized that birthdays could be that awesome! It had been awkward at first – he had to be transferred to a new middle school and everyone there kind of ignored him and he wasn't sure how to act around his aunt and uncle and everything was just so different from what he was used to._

_But Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry helped him through it. They helped him get used to all the changes and they showed him that there wasn't anything wrong with him. They taught him that he was a wonderful person and they always said that they were proud of him. And it was the most beautiful thing he'd experienced. He never wanted it to stop, but, like all good things, it had to come to an end._

_At first, he hadn't even noticed it. Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry got a little more distant and had a little bit more paperwork, but he didn't think anything of it. They were always really busy and sometimes work gave them even more stuff to do, so he understood. But then it got worse. Soon, they were reading over papers (that they wouldn't let Wally see no matter what) and on the phone talking too quietly for him to hear every time he came in the room. He didn't know what he'd done wrong. So he tried to do his best. He kept his room really clean and he made sure that he did his homework and got really good grades and he helped out with the chores. It didn't help, though. They still stayed distant. He didn't know what to do to make it better, so he decided to just stay distant. Were they not proud of him anymore? Was this was happened with his own parents? Had time shown them that he wasn't worth it? He asked them that once, at the dinner table. They were horrified at the suggestion and told him that he wasn't the problem at all and that everything was fine. They lied to him._

_One day Wally came back from school to find Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry waiting for him at the dinner table. They told him to sit down and please be quiet until they finished. So he sat down neatly and folded his hands in his lap like the teachers at school said to do. He kept his big green eyes trained on his two most favorite people. And then they told him that they were sending him back to his father._

_Why? Did they really hate him that much? They must have finally realized that he wasn't worth it! That's what they'd been doing all that time. They'd been trying to get rid of him and waiting for Rudolph West to get through the drunk person program so he could take Wally off their hands. Wally begged them to keep him. He begged Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry to adopt him or take care of him to just not send him back to his father. He said that he'd do anything. He promised to behave and get better grades and he said that he'd be quieter and stronger and he'd try to make more friends in high school and that he wouldn't ask for as much stuff. He'd help out with more chores around the house and he'd find a new hobby. He'd do_ anything _if they wouldn't send him back to his dad!_

_Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry started crying when Wally did. They said through their tears that they couldn't keep him. They said that since there was no proof that Rudy was a bad person that they couldn't make a case for it and even if they could make a case for it, they didn't have the resources to keep him. It was fine for a little bit of time, but if they kept a growing kid who would need to go to college soon, then there was no way that they'd be able to afford it. They assured him that he would be better off with Rudy and that they'd talked to Rudy and he really was changed after going through that program and that everything was going to be okay. They promised that they would do their best to visit whenever they could. They lied about that too._

_He still wasn't sure what he did wrong. His father told him that just being alive was what he did wrong. Well, he waited until they were out of sight of Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry's house to say that, but it was the first thing he said to Wally. He hadn't changed at all. It wasn't long before Wally saw a fist coming straight for his face…_

RRRRRR

Roy was not amused. Whoever that Momentum punk was or whatever was going to pay. Seriously, though! Since when did the Rogues have a speedster? He had to be new. What were the odds that he'd pick the Queen hotel room? At least Roy had stopped him from stealing everything. He'd gotten mad at Oliver and stormed out of Barry's house, grabbing his motorcycle and booking it for the hotel. He'd decided that he was going to do a little patrolling and so had suited up, not expecting to find someone in the process of  _stealing from him_. While he was  _in the building_. On the  _same floor_. This kid was a moron! Didn't any of the older Rogues think to send someone in with him or something. Well, actually, he probably had to be with one of the other ones based on the fact that he disappeared into the bathroom, but wasn't in there when Roy showed up. Mirror Master was probably with him.

The kid was such a douche, though! He sat there and called Roy a sidekick vigilante. What kind of jerk do you have to be to call someone that? Roy had turned on his comms and let Oliver, Dinah, and Barry know what happened, and Barry said that he'd go try to find which safe house the Rogues were in and have a chat with them, but he wasn't promising anything. Oliver and Dinah said they'd alert the cops to their predicament. Roy was left alone to go out on a patrol – his original plan anyways.

And patrol when he was in a bad mood was not anywhere near as fun as it should have been. It was seriously a problem. He couldn't get rid of the simmering anger that came from being mad at Oliver and being humiliated by a villain in quick succession.

The anger only intensified when he saw the kid villain literally napping in an alleyway. Who did that kid think he was? He was  _napping_  while Roy was looking to capture him? But then, before Roy could move forward, the kid jerked upwards, taking shuddering breaths. It was obvious that he'd just escaped some sort of nightmare or something. And what kind of monster would Roy be if he cuffed someone who just woke up from a nightmare or something? He hadn't been trying to manipulate the kid when he told him that he could give up the life of crime right then and there. Roy hadn't always been the best kid and now here he was as a hero. This kid could be the same. He certainly had the powers for it.

So, for some reason, instead of handcuffing the kid and hauling him away, Roy sat on the ground in front of the speedster, idly grabbing one of his arrows and starting to sharpen it. "'Sup?" He asked.

"Seriously?" the speedster hissed, definitely disoriented, "I steal from someone and you can't stop me and you say 'sup?"

"I could have stopped you." Roy shot back, eyebrows drawing together. He totally  _could_  have stopped him. He just went easy on him because he looked like a kid. Roy wasn't expecting an adult partner. That was it.

"No you couldn't have. I had backup." Momentum boasted, leaning back like he wasn't trapped between two dumpsters, a wall, and an angry archer.

"Sure you did. The Rogues, right? I don't believe that you're a part of the Rogues." Roy responded flippantly.

"I  _am_!" Momentum shot back angrily before pausing and clenching and unclenching his fingers before saying, "But they messed up, so I left."

"That's how it's always going to be, kid. Villains are like that – you make one little mistake and they kick you like yesterday's trash. Heroes are a lot more forgiving." Roy responded, shrugging like it didn't matter to him.

Momentum didn't focus on the part Roy expected him to, though, instead saying moodily, "They didn't kick me out."

Roy tilted his masked face to the side curiously, "But they would have if you hadn't run, right?" Momentum's clenched jaw was all he needed to know. And, yeah, Roy could get behind that feeling. Roy's voice actually held a caring note in it when he said, "Look, come back to my base with me. Meet Green Arrow and Black Canary. Your crime will be forgiven and forgotten and we can protect you if the Rogues ever decide to come after you for revenge or something stupid like that. We're heroes. Even if we wanted to drop you like yesterday's trash, we'd feel obligated to keep you." That finally drew a small smile out of the villain and Roy had to struggle to keep his own in, "Besides, we know the Flash. We can get him to help train you."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Momentum's face closed off instantly and the smile disappeared like it hadn't even been there in the first place. Roy probably should have thought about his words. This was one of the Flash's villains, technically. It makes since that he would have some kind of beef with the heroic speedster. Roy barely kept his groan in when Momentum said angrily, "I'm not a hero and I never will be. Leave me alone!"

He did end up sighing, however, and saying this, "Alright kid. Momentum, whatever. I'm going to give you the number to my Speedy burner phone. You're going to become an informant for me. I won't ask you to spy on your friends, but if I need some infiltrating or whatever in my city or if I need some shady help, I'll contact you. If there are villains that get in your way or whatever, give me some dirt on them and I'll take them down. In return, I'll get you food whenever you want because that backpack tells me that you were living with the Rogues and probably don't have anywhere to go anymore and I know that speedsters need a lot to eat. How about it, kid? Become my strategically used criminal informant?"

For a long moment, Roy didn't think he would accept. Momentum just stared at him like he was crazy. Then Momentum spoke, "I can say no if I don't want to help you with something?" Roy nodded and Momentum frowned, "I have to hear you say it."

Roy sighed and rolled his eyes, but said, "You can say no if you don't want to help me with something. No harm, no foul." He wanted to help this kid become a hero. He wanted to help him do some good in his life.

There was another long pause before Momentum turned to face him, masked eyes to masked eyes, and said, "I'll do it."


	6. To Care

WWWWWW

Wally was kind of at a loss of what to do. Speedy had left pretty soon after giving Wally his burner phone number and, when realizing that Wally didn't actually have a phone because he hadn't wanted the Rogues to be able to track him, giving him a burner phone of his own. It hadn't taken Wally long to enter in the contact details for Speedy in the phone before he tore the little sheet of paper with the number into tiny pieces. No one would be taking that number. After that, well, there wasn't really much he  _could_  do. It was like the first time he started living on the streets all over again, but better. He wasn't quite as alone this time. He still had his connections and his hiding spots and a plan. Sure, he'd go back to being half-starved and getting beat up by gangs and other undesirables, but that was fine. He expected this. Wally was one hundred percent mentally prepared for this. He knew the Rogues weren't going to want him because he was a failure that messed everything up. And that was fine. He knew that. It was okay. It really was.

Sighing to himself, Wally got comfortable between the dumpsters again, fairly certain that no one would bother him again. The gangs around would have seen the hero come into the alley and no one wanted to go into an alley where a hero had stopped for a while. So, that still left him at a loss of what to do.

He stared at the phone in his hand. It was cheap and a flip phone and nothing special, but it was his now and no one would track him on it. This would be his tool to become an informant. For a hero. He who was momentarily a supervillain will now be an informant for a superhero. What has his life come to? On a whim, Wally opened the contacts folder and carefully put in another number and labeled it 'Freddie'. He couldn't help that he memorizes everything he sees! So what he remembered Freddie's number? He probably wasn't going to text it anyways. It was just... just a reminder. He didn't need friends and he didn't need the Rogues.

Wally drifted back off to sleep with an ugly voice in his mind telling him that it wasn't nice to lie to himself.

LLLLLL

Len was not happy. What did that kid think he was doing? The moment the three of them had realized that Wally was gone, they'd all scrambled toward the mirror, certain that Wally was going to grab that ratty backpack of his that he'd insisted on keeping. They were going to stop him before he disappeared into Central's homeless underground.

Except, they'd come home to the shocked, confused, windblown faces of the other Rogues. Mick blinked a little before saying, "What was that?"

"I missed the hero Speedy in the hotel room and Wally got caught by him and had to run without getting everything we planned and now Wally thinks that we want to get rid of him so he left before we could say anything." Hartley summarized curtly as Sam rushed up the stairs. For a moment, no one spoke. They all just stared at each other with wide, worried eyes.

Sam came down significantly slower than before, his shoulders slumped and his brow crinkled in the center like it always got when he was trying to figure something difficult out, "He's gone. He only took the backpack – nothing we can track him with. His phone's here and he left his comms device here. He didn't change out of the suit though. He probably thought it would take too long."

The room filled with colorful curses, Len's included. How could the kid be so  _stupid_? He'd told the moron that it was fine and that they could just talk about it. Why couldn't he just  _listen_? And then, to make matters even worse because karma liked to punish his sins in large bunches of horrible things, the Flash showed up at their front door.

And sure, that was fine and all. They had a pretty interesting relationship with the Flash. The hero and his villains would drink together and watch movies together and they had ways of contacting each other in case of an emergency. That was just the way they were. Of course, it wasn't ever entirely relaxed because the Flash never told them his identity and he was, obviously, a hero which meant that sometimes they villains said something or did something that rankled his little heroic tendencies and that would put them at odds for a little bit, but they always worked through their problems. The Rogues were a family and family included those people that are important to you and who is more important to a villain than their city's hero?

So, all in all, Flash showing up wasn't that strange or unwelcome. Normally. This, however, was a special case. Len wasn't feel particularly charitable towards  _anyone_  and especially not a friend of the young archer who almost  _put an arrow through_  a member of Len's family. And Len was pretty sure that a lecture about stealing from rich visitors was coming soon and he really wasn't prepared to deal with that when Wally was out there somewhere all alone. Len decided that the best case of action would be to just ignore the knocking on the door and stay focused on the plans. There was a giant map on the wall of Central City and there were markers in various places. These were all the places where the Rogues knew Wally had frequented (aka the place Len first met him, the place the group found him passed out in an alley, and the place he'd run to the other day that Len tracked him to using his phone) and a few places that Wally had vaguely mentioned in passing at some point during the week or so they'd known him.

The incredibly small number of locations was disheartening to say the least. The sound of the Flash vibrating through their door was even more so. There was a breeze as the scarlet speedster zipped into the room, but Len didn't turn around, simply announcing emotionlessly, "There is such thing as privacy."

"That doesn't seem to stop you from breaking into people's hotel rooms." Flash shot back.

"Ah, I meant there is such thing as privacy to  _heroes_. Those things don't apply to villains." Len drawled back, still keeping his eyes on the map. There has to be something there. Something has to stick out and tell him where Wally is.

Flash's voice held a frown in it as he got serious (or, as serious as he could be), "Where did Momentum come from?"

"Would you believe me if I said we found him in an alley and decided to bring him home like a little puppy?" Len asked sardonically.

"Be serious here. This is important." The Flash frowned before pausing, "You didn't actually just grab some random kid in the alley and bring him home like a homeless puppy, did you?"

Len shrugged and smirked. Flash gaped at him. James announced, "It was my idea!"

Flash face palmed and sighed, shaking his head, "I'm so disappointed in all of you. What happened to not harming children or whatever?"

"We didn't hurt him!" Mark protested, "He was beat up in the alleyway and we were helping him out. Besides, he wasn't getting enough to eat."

Flash sighed again, "I'm going to talk to him. Hopefully I can get him to see the error of his ways and set him on the right path. If not, then at least I can make sure he can control his powers enough to function. Where is he?"

Len's archenemy started glancing around the room as if a new occupant would suddenly spring out of nowhere and Len rolled his eyes, gesturing to the hanging map, "What do you think we're doing?"

"Are you serious?" Flash groaned, "You lost him?"

There was a moment of silence where everyone shifted their gaze to the floor or the couch or the map or anywhere to avoid Flash's supposed glare. Then Hartley admitted quietly, "It was my fault. I didn't scout the building well enough and Speedy showed up out of nowhere and the mission went south. Momentum blamed himself and thought that we'd hate him for it, so he ran. I was so  _stupid_. I can't believe I missed him! He's wearing a bright red suit and I missed him!" Hartley hissed out the last part, looking closer to tears than Len had seen him in a long time.

Frowning deeply, Len said, "You've never scoped out a place and failed before. This was something different. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't Momentum's fault. It wasn't Mirror Master or my faults either. It was a bad set of circumstances. You can sit there and whine about it or you can get over yourself and think of ways to find him."

Flash gave Len an affronted look, offended on Hartley's behalf, but the young supervillain nodded, eyes drying and face taking on a harder edge. He needed to get his act together if he wanted to find his friend. Then Hartley's eyes lit up and he said, "Hey! Why don't we have Flash run around the city and try to find him? We think he's still in his Momentum outfit, so he'll be pretty easy to spot. He likes to stay in alleyways, so you could just run through all of Central's alleys and see if you find him."

Flash gave off the impression of raising his eyebrows at them before he said, "You want me to run through all of Central to find your lost kid. A supervillain."

"That about sums it up." Digger nodded.

Muttering to himself, Flash finally sighed and said, "I'll be back in a flash!" Hartley's groan filled the air as the scarlet speedster raced out of the room. He hoped their hero would find Wally. That boy needed to come home.

BBBBBB

Barry grumbled to himself. He was just trying to enjoy himself with his friends in a non-superhero way and everything went downhill. Oliver and Roy got mad at each other (surprise, surprise) and Roy stormed off. About ten minutes later Roy called in that the Rogues' speedster just tried to rob the Queens. The Rogues' speedster. Because apparently they have a speedster now. And didn't find any reason to tell him, a speedster, about it.

The cherry on top of the cake was the fact that they lost said speedster almost immediately after using him. Sometimes he didn't know what his Rogues were doing with their lives. Anyways, the faster he found this kid, the sooner he could go back to his friends and his beautiful wife.

Flash was running low on alleys to check when a bright yellow suit finally caught his eye. The bright red on the suit and on the hair of the person caught his attention next. This was certainly a bright kid. The hair was wild and windswept and the kid's skin was pale with a few freckles peeking out from under his mask. Barry smiled sadly at the sleeping kid. This is what his nephew would look like right about now.

Kneeling down and wincing at the gross mess on the ground, Barry shook the kid's – Momentum's – shoulder, "Hey, Momentum, wake up, kiddo." In hindsight, it probably wasn't that good of an idea to wake the kid up. What if he tried to run when he saw the hero? Then again, it was probably preferable to Momentum waking up while Barry was running with him and causing the two of them to fall. That would suck. A lot.

So Barry continued to try to wake the ginger speedster up, "Momentum. We need to get you home, so why don't you wake up?"

Slowly, ever so slowly, Momentum came awake. He shuffled into awareness, bringing a hand to rub at his masked face and yawning. Barry knew the exact moment when Momentum saw him. The pale teen turned his head a little and  _froze_. He stopped moving entirely; his breathing quieted and his arm stopped stretching. Putting a bright smile on his face, Barry said, "C'mon, kiddo. I'm bringing you home."

Momentum scowled at him and scooched back a little – as far from Barry as possible in the enclosed place, "Is this some kind of intervention program you have? I just met your  _friend_  Speedy too." The way he said friend with such disdain broke Barry's heart. He was also a little miffed that Speedy saw Momentum and didn't say anything. That would have prevented a lot of time of running around the city looking for him.

"Look, Momentum, the Rogues asked me to look for you. They want me to bring you home." Barry tried, settling down on the ground and spreading his arms peacefully.

All that managed to do was force a deeper scowl on the kid's face, "This is my home." He was vibrating his vocal chords, changing the tone and inflection of his voice. Barry knew the trick well, but he wasn't sure why the kid thought it necessary to pull it on him.

Barry put on an encouraging expression, "They really do care about you like you're family. They were worried out of their mind when you left. And Pied Piper blames himself over you leaving. He's worried that if anything happens to you it'll be his fault for driving you off."

"He's just being stupid, then. It wasn't him, it was me. I wasn't good enough. They don't really want me. They're just pretending." Momentum growled back.

"Why would they go this far just pretending?" Barry asked, trying to get the kid to see reason. This was an all-new level of self-hatred and Barry wanted the kid to know that he was loved.

Momentum turned his head to the side and snarled, "Just go away! Leave me alone! This isn't any of your business anyways!"

"You're a speedster, so that makes it my business. Speedsters stick together when they can. How trained are you with your speed? How many things happen that confuse you because you don't know your powers well enough? I can help you, train you. I won't train you to fight or steal because I feel like that would be counterproductive, but I'll teach how to run at least." Barry was getting excited about this idea. All of his friends were running around with cute little kids they could mentor and he didn't get that. Maybe this villain could be his answer.

Momentum answered with an emphatic, " _No_!"

Barry pouted, "Come on! Don't be like that! It'd be fun. I'm sure you want to learn more about your powers!"

"I don't want to have anything to do with  _you_." Momentum hissed and that actually kind of hurt. Barry hadn't been prepared for the vehemence that came with that declaration. The little speedster legitimately hated him. Sure, all the Rogues were mildly irritated with him most of the time and they didn't appreciate getting their butts handed to them before being hauled off to jail, but none of them hated him like this one did.

"I'll get you to trust me someday, I swear this. It's important to me that you don't go down a road like Zoom's or Reverse Flash's. I would prefer if you were a hero, but I can deal with you being a Rogue. So, please, let me help you. Maybe not now, but someday." Barry said, mouth a worried line. There was no response from the hostile teen, so Barry sighed and continued with, "The Rogues really do miss you and want you back. You should go home."

There was another long pause and Barry didn't think the other speedster was going to answer, but then the kid mumbled, "I'm not going back to their house… but… I won't leave this alley either." It was the closest Barry was going to get. He let a wide, bright smile cover his face before he ruffled the kid's hair (ignoring his squawk of indignation) and sped to the end of the alleyway, checking the roads. He quickly made a call to the Rogues, telling them where they needed to go to find their missing family member.

It didn't take long for the Rogues to show up, taking the alley by storm and hovering around Momentum. Barry watched from the end of the alley, determined to make sure that the Rogues really are a good fit for this kid. If they weren't… well, he wasn't sure what he would do. He certainly didn't have the income to take in another speedster, and Bruce and Oliver both had their hands full with the little heroes they'd already adopted, but he'd find something. He made this mistake with his nephew and he wasn't going to ever make it again.

He looked up, back into the alley, when he heard the sound of someone getting hit. It was Len smacking Momentum lightly in the back of the head. The look the speedster sent him was so betrayed that Barry knew it hadn't happened before. Len scowled down at the speedster, "What were you thinking? Don't you  _dare_  ever do that again."

Mick tutted a little, "Don't scare the kid! What Len meant to say was that we are so proud of your first heist and how well you adapted to that unfamiliar, unprecedented situation. We would never,  _ever_  tell you to leave because of a heist gone wrong." Barry was impressed; normally Heatwave never talked that much.

The rest of the group hugged Momentum and checked him over, making sure he wasn't hurt anywhere. Sam cried out in dismay at the dirtiness of the suit. Len scowled at them. James hung off of Momentum's leg like a little monkey. Digger swung a boomerang in Momentum's face and threatened him. Mick kept a comforting hand on the newest member's shoulder. Mark laughed at something the speedster did. Hartley was the only odd-man out. He was standing a little outside their circle with his shoulders hunched and his eyes drawn to the ground. Eventually, Momentum glanced up at the lonely figure and scowled, "What's wrong with you, Hartley? You haven't said anything."

Hartley crumpled, his shoulders sagging and his head bowing even further, "I'm sorry! I messed up! It's my fault and I'm sorry. We'll never, ever kick you out because of bad intel. I mean, look at us! We need all the family we can get. Just, please don't run away again. I promise I'll keep practicing until I won't ever miss someone in a house again!"

His comment seemed to make Momentum uncomfortable, "It's fine. I overreacted, I guess."

"You guess?" Len asked. Hartley moved to hug the other teen supervillain, saying sorry a few more times before Sam glared him into stopping.

Momentum shrugged, "I mean, it still doesn't feel like I overreacted. That was a perfectly normal reaction to have."

"That was not a normal reaction, ankle biter. A normal reaction woulda been to talk it over with us first." Digger said, concern obvious written all over his face. Barry leaned forward in anticipation. He wanted to learn more about this other speedster and he wanted to see how he needed to help him.

Momentum turned his head to the side mulishly, "Yeah, well, I don't know if any of you have lived on the streets, but we street kids don't get here because our lives have been great. We end up on the streets because no one cares enough to stick around. Some group of people saying that they care about you and won't drop you the second you mess up is kind of a myth here on the streets. People like you don't exist. The world isn't good enough to us for people to actually care. So when people act like they care? That's a sign to run away because they just want to use you. Besides, that's the only thing I'm good at. The only thing I  _can_  do right is run."

His sudden confession was met with broken silence as everyone tried to take in the teen's words. Barry felt his heart break. What had this kid gone through that made him like this? How many others were suffering here in Barry's city that he couldn't help? He tried his best to make life at least a little better for the street kids and he tried to get them jobs whenever he could, but there was only so much a not-very-rich lone masked hero could do in that kind of situation. He wished he could do more though. He always did.

Realizing that the Rogues were planning to leave soon and that Momentum really was happy with this ragtag little group, Barry turned and started to head home. Iris would like to hear about this. She'd think it was a sweet story.

WWWWWW

After the excitement of the night, Wally decided to get to bed pretty soon after he got… home. The other Rogues were cool with that although a lot of them decided to stay up a little longer, either together in the living room or up in their rooms. In the end, Wally was kind of embarrassed. He really did overreact even though it wasn't like that at the time. But, the Rogues had gone out of their way to find him and they hadn't yelled at him or hit him (Len's light smack hardly counted) or told him how useless he was (quite the opposite actually). And then there was the fact that he hadn't told the Rogues about the deal he made with Speedy or the things that the Flash had said. Uncle Barry. Wally just had a conversation with his Uncle Barry in the first time in forever. He was lucky that he could do that voice changing trick otherwise things could have ended a lot worse for him than they did. Because they ended great.

Sighing and racing out of his uniform, Wally decided to shower when he woke up. He really did need some sleep. Before he could let sleep embrace him for the third time that night (third time's the charm, right?), Wally's eye caught on the burner phone Speedy had given him. Frowning thoughtfully, Wally reached out and grabbed the device, typing out a message and sending it before he could change his own mind.

_Momentum (12:31am):_

_I got back with the Rogues. Is this deal still on?_

_Speedy (12:31am):_

_If you want it to be._

_Momentum (12:33am):_

_Yeah… yeah I still want it to be. As much as I don't care if I steal from people, it'll still be nice to help people out once in a while. And it could help me too._

_Speedy (12:34am):_

_You sound like you're trying to convince yourself._

_Momentum (12:34am):_

_Jerk._

_Speedy (12:35am):_

_Moron._

_By the way, don't tell the other Rogues about this._

_I have to go now._

Wally let his phone fall onto his chest. He could already see this ending badly. But, he really didn't want to upset the peace that had finally fallen in this home. He felt like he had finally accepted his place here and that the people here wouldn't hurt him. It was a strange feeling, but it was a good one, too. So bringing this up would just be stupid. Besides, he really did want to help people, too. It was decided then; he wouldn't mention this to anyone. As he was about to set his phone on a nearby table, Wally caught sight of another name in his contact list and, after a long moment of hesitation, he typed out another message, this time as 'John', not as Momentum.

_John (12:37am):_

_Hey, what's up?_

_Freddie (12:37am):_

_Why are you still up? And, nothing much, just hanging. How about you?_

_John (12:38am):_

_Why are *you* still up? And I'm not doing much either._

_Freddie (12:38am):_

_I'll have you know I just got home an hour ago from a math team competition, so there. I have an actually good excuse to be awake right now. Better than you, I'd say._

_John (12:39am):_

_Has anyone ever told you that you text really fast? It's kinda weird._

_Freddie (12:39am):_

_Has anyone ever told you that you dodge questions about yourself really well? It's kinda weird._

_John (12:40am):_

_Has anyone ever told you that you're really obnoxious?_

_Freddie (12:40am):_

_Yes_

_John (12:40am):_

_Good, then I don't have to._

_I'm up late because I ran away tonight. Since you were dying to know._

_Freddie (12:41am):_

_Ah, sorry. You didn't have to tell me. I'm not in Central anymore, but I know some people there if you need a place to stay?_

_John (12:42am):_

_I hope you realize how sketchy that sounds. And it's fine, I went back home._

_Freddie (12:42am):_

_I'll leave that topic alone until we get to know each other a little better. Hey! There's this website where we can play Scrabble against each other. Wanna try it?_

_John (12:43am):_

_You, who says things like asterous and whelming, want to play scrabble with me at almost one in the morning?_

_Freddie (12:43am):_

_Meanie!_

_John (12:44am):_

_What are you, twelve?_

_Freddie (12:44am):_

_You're the one that looked twelve_

_John (12:44am):_

_Did not!_

_Freddie (12:45am):_

_Did too!_

_John (12:45am):_

_I'm not getting into this with you. You win. Send me the link and I'll play scrabble with you at almost one in the morning._

_Freddie (12:45am):_

_[LINK ATTACHED] Yay!_

Wally didn't know what he was doing with his life and it was probably all going to fall to pieces, but at the moment, he didn't care. He had an amazing criminal family that were willing to let him be a criminal with him, he was an informant for a hero, he actually talked to his uncle for the first time in forever, and he kind of made a friend. Things were starting to look up for the first time in his life.


	7. Vacation Time

WWWWWW

It was a week after the whole running away fiasco. After a lot of cajoling and more practice, Wally had gone on his second heist and that one was a lot more successful. He had stolen from some super extra rich dude named Simon Stagg. He was apparently something of a brute with serious ego issues and an obsession with his daughter. He had a personal army of thugs and was considered quite conman-ish by pretty much anyone who spent any amount of time with him. Those traits were what let him be targeted by the Rogues. Sure, they were villains and didn't claim to be some sort of vigilantes who stole from the rich and returned it to the poor, but they did try to target some of the more douche-y members of human society. At least, that was the impression Wally had gotten. None of the Rogues had said that explicitly.

Overall, everything was going pretty great. His life as a criminal was starting to get clearer and although he hadn't officially made his big debut to the public (he wasn't nearly trained enough with his speed to go toe to toe with the Flash like he would if he went public), he was starting to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld.

It turned out that he was pretty good at talking out deals with other criminals and he had been hired by someone that the Rogues kind of trusted to do some chemical work for a heist they were working on. For the first time in his life, Wally felt like people really  _saw_ him. Even though he always had a mask on around other criminals and made sure that people didn't get even a hint of his name, people were seeing and  _respecting_  Momentum. Sure, there were derogatory comments about his age and his height and all that, but it was to be expected from a group of brash, tough criminals. Hartley assured him that not all of them meant their mean words, but he hadn't quite gotten the hang of which ones were teasing and which ones were mocking. He just chose to take all insults with a grain of salt and hope no one got mad at him. So far, so good.

He wasn't just settling in as a criminal. His home life was settling in too. As much as he'd gotten into the rhythm that came from spending two weeks with a group of people, a month with them really cemented it. It was kind of amazing actually; he didn't think he'd spent this long in one place since… probably since his father took him back from his Aunt and Uncle.

Speaking of that, the Flash had been annoyingly persistent. Every time Momentum went for a run or did some exercises out somewhere or something, Flash was there pestering him. It had almost become normal at this point, irritatingly enough. As he would run, Flash would give him pointers on how to hold his hands so he ran faster with less energy. As he would try dodging things, Flash would pipe up with a way of slowing everything down and looking around him faster than he'd been attempting. As he would take a break in a forest somewhere in France, Flash would give him a recipe for extremely high calorie protein bars. Wally wasn't sure what all he felt about this. Obviously, it irritated him. But it also scared him (what if Uncle Barry found out who he was?) and it made him happy (Uncle Barry actually cares!) and it made him angry (he didn't care about me before. He only cares about me now because I have super speed!) and it made him frustrated (what do I do now?) and he didn't know how to deal with it.

Wally didn't know how to ask for help about it either. Not only would telling the Rogues about the problem give out more about his past than he wanted them to know, but it would also give away the Flash's secret ID and even though Wally kind of hated him, there was no way he would do that to him since he obviously didn't want them to know. Speedy knew about the Flash's civilian ID, but Wally did not know Speedy well enough for that kind of conversation. The two had talked arbitrarily a few times through the burner phone that Wally still hadn't told the Rogues about. Speedy was pretty cool if one got past his 'cool kid' act.

Then there was Freddie. Wally still didn't know the kid's real name or his age or where he lived or really, anything about him. Then again, the kid didn't know anything about Wally, so it was probably fair enough. They talked a lot though and played online games even more. This was yet another thing that Wally hadn't told the Rogues about, but this at least he didn't feel guilty about. It was a normal thing to make friends and only tell your family about the friend when you want to hang out with them right? Honestly, Wally didn't know, but that's what he was going to go with. There was no way he was going to feel guilty about this when his secrets about Uncle Barry and Speedy were already piling up on his conscience.

Mark knocking him on the back of his head pulled Wally out of his inner pity party. Wally scowled at Mark, "What?"

"Our glorious leader was trying to get your attention." Mark responded, aiming the sarcastic title at the cold-themed villain sitting in the passenger seat, frowning at the back of the van.

Len ignored Mark and told Wally, "Pay attention. Don't lose yourself to daydreaming."

"Maybe I wouldn't daydream if we weren't wasting our time driving to the safe house. I get that Sam couldn't transport us through the mirrors because it was  _way_  too far away and no one wanted to spend that long in the mirror dimension. I get that, really, but there was no reason why I couldn't have just run everyone over. I mean, I should get used to running people around. You know, training and stuff. It would have taken maybe an hour if I was going really slow to run you guys one or two at a time with the suitcases and stuff. Instead we're stuck in a stalker van for  _eight hours_  to go to this safe house. You won't even tell me why we're going to this mysterious safe house!" Wally scowled, his patience worn thin after the first two hours in the car.

Sam interjected defensively, "It's not a stalker van!"

Hartley shrugged, one ear bud out, "It's a large white van with tinted windows. Classic stalker van." Sam just pouted in response.

Len ignored both of them, "That's what I've been  _trying_ to tell you, but you've been so stuck in whatever going's through that head of yours that you didn't even realize I was talking to you." He sighed and pinched his nose.

Wally sniffed disdainfully, "You'd daydream too if you'd spent as long as I have in the car."

"…That doesn't make any sense. We've all been in the car just as long as you." Mick announced from his spot driving the car.

"It makes perfect sense!" Wally protested, "Obviously my mind has to function as fast as my body, right? That means that I take in everything as fast as I would have to if I was running. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that it feels like I've been stuck in here for two days. I have been stuck in this  _incredibly slow_  van for what feels like two  _whole days_. Why do you think I'm drifting off?"

Len let his eyes drift shut as he struggled to maintain his cold as ice mask. After a moment, he opened his eyes and focused that piercing gaze on Wally, "We're going to this other safe house because we got word that Zoom is going to Central. As much as we pride ourselves to be the villains of Central and say that no one can do a crime without our permission, Zoom and Reverse Flash are the exceptions. I'm being entirely serious here Wally – if you are ever faced with either of them, you  _run_. They're fast, maybe even faster than the Flash. He has a hard time facing them. And they're monsters. People like them belong in Gotham. But they've chosen to fixate on Flash instead, so we go on vacation whenever they come to town. We warned the Flash about Zoom and Flasher will come up here when the monster's taken care of."

The leader of the Rogues paused to take a breath, but he must have noticed the expression on Wally's face because his own expression turned exasperated. Len sighed, "What do you have against the Flash?"

"I don't have anything against him." Wally said, shrugging his shoulders and turning to stare out the window again. He knew that his particular habit of looking out the window when he didn't like the way a conversation was going was a dead giveaway, but he didn't care.

"Yeah right." Digger snorted, "Tell me that when ya don't snap at 'im whenever he pops up during training and I'll believe ya."

"Not to mention the way you get all frowny face whenever people mention him!" James threw in.

Wally sent him a betrayed look, "James! You were supposed to back me up!" James just grinned at him and Wally couldn't help but send a small smile back. That one was going to be the death of him one of these days.

Sam piped up, "C'mon kid, just tell us what you have against the Flash?"

"Why does it bother you so much?" Wally shot back instead, scowl reforming.

"Flash is our hero. To be professional supervillains, we have to maintain an… understanding with our hero. In our case, it is a sort of…  _mutual arrangement_  that we have with the Flash. That delicate balance could easily be shifted into dangerous territory by your little problems." Len said, voice serious and even. Wally gritted his teeth. Maybe the problems were little, but they didn't feel like it to him.

"Besides," Hartley started, "we're a family. We tell people these kinds of things!"

Wally sent him a droll look, "You don't even know my last name – which you're not going to find out anytime soon!" He added quickly at the end, already seeing the expressions Sam and Mark wore. He glared at them before saying, "Look, just leave it alone. I won't let it 'shift the balance into dangerous territory', okay?"

"No." Mick stated simply, sending Wally a  _Look_  through the little mirror that hung about the dashboard of a car.

"It's fine. I just… I haven't had the best experiences with him. He doesn't recognize me and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon, but… I don't know. We just didn't have the greatest interaction the last time I saw him before getting into this whole Rogue debacle. It's not important." Wally muttered, turning even further towards the window.

There was something softer in Len's voice (more like snow than ice) when he spoke again, "We're obviously not getting more than that out of you. As long as you can keep it professional like you said, then we'll be fine. I trust you to keep it that way." Wally just nodded his head. Conversation puttered off before picking up again in groups of two or three (or one in James's case), but Wally stayed silent, deciding to follow Hartley's example and put his headphones in, turning up some music.

As the music started playing, he felt something buzz in one of his other pockets. Frowning for a second as he tried to remember what it could be, Wally realized that it was his burner phone. Speedy had said to answer texts as soon as possible, but this wasn't the best time. He was literally in the car with all of the Rogues! On the other hand, it could be Freddie and then it really wouldn't matter when he answered it. But what if it was Speedy? Frowning, Wally pulled a book into his lap and conveniently covered his pocket it with it. After a few moments, Wally turned a page, pulling the phone out of his pocket in the same movement and setting it on top of the pages of the book, lifting one half of the novel to shield view of the phone. All in all, he was pretty proud of his sneaky ways. He was  _awesome_.

_Speedy (10:13am):_

_I've got something for you to help me with. You ready for your first job as a consultant?_

_Momentum (10:16am):_

_What's the job?_

_Speedy (10:16am):_

_I'll let you know face to face, not over the phone._

_When are you free?_

_Momentum (10:17am):_

_I can probably get to Star City around midnight. Any earlier and one of the other Rogues will probably notice me sneaking out._

_Speedy (10:18am):_

_[ADDRESS ATTACHED] Be here by midnight then._

_Momentum (10:18am):_

_Will do_

Wally frowned; this wasn't going to be good. This would be the first time that he would try to sneak out of the house to do a consulting job and he wasn't even going to be in a house that he was used to. He was also going to be in a completely different part of the country which sucked. He had a lot further to run. That actually wasn't that bad. Running always helped steady his nerves when he was nervous and he would certainly be nervous for this.

The Rogues would kill him if they realized what he was doing, but he didn't know how to bring it up. He didn't want to stop, but he wanted to stay with the Rogues. He would probably try it out this one time and if it proved to not be what he wanted then he'd stop, no harm, no foul. Otherwise, he'd just keep doing this and hoping the Rogues didn't find out. That was good enough, right? That's what the devil on one shoulder told him, but the angel on the other tried to convince him that he was doing the wrong thing. Ah well, he was a criminal. He made a living on listening to the devil. What was one more time?

RRRRRR

Roy waited impatiently. It was ten minutes past midnight and Momentum still hadn't showed up. What was it with speedsters? They were faster than literally everything else and yet they all still ended up late. Roy shifted slightly from one foot to another, wondering if this was really such a good idea. Was it okay for him to do this to Momentum? Sure, the kid hadn't seemed all that happy with the Rogues when he'd offered the deal, but he went back with the Rogues and didn't seem to mind them now. Was he just tearing their family apart? And was it okay for him to sit there and work with Momentum without telling Barry about it when Barry was trying as hard as he could to get the ginger speedster to open up to him? Roy almost felt like he was taking something away from Barry. He also hadn't told Dick about this yet and he knew that Dick wouldn't be happy at all when he found out that Roy had been knowingly fraternizing with a criminal and not getting Dick in on the action.

All thoughts about the morality of his actions were blown away by Momentum rushing into the dilapidated old building with a burst of wind. Momentum paused for a moment before laughing nervously and rubbing a hand on the back of his neck, "Haha, sorry… must have gotten the wrong old rundown building…"

Roy inwardly rolled his eyes, "It's me, Speedy, moron."

"Whoa, really? What's up with the weird get up?" Momentum asked, speeding closer and looking up at Roy, making the archer wonder just how young this kid was.

"It's my Red Arrow suit. Green Arrow doesn't like me going out on my own and doing certain things, so sometimes I go out as Red Arrow to do them. He's still trying to figure out who this other archer is." Roy stated smugly. He was pretty proud of himself for being able to hide this. Whenever he got mad at Ollie, he'd get vague ideas of going solo and becoming Red Arrow full time, but he hadn't gotten  _that_  mad yet. He was close during the time the partners were supposed to go to the Watchtower but were only brought to the Hall of Justice like lame little kids. He was still bitter about that.

Momentum's voice was a little hesitant when he next said, "And will I be getting a different outfit too? Because the Rogues would kill me if they heard about me working with a hero. Not that I don't want to work with you. I just don't want to get in trouble because of it. And then Flash would get even more on my case. He's already bothering me all the time and trying to help me 'become a better speedster' and I'm pretty sure he's trying to use some sort of mind tricks and manipulate me into becoming a full time hero, but it's not working. I'm too smart for his wily ways. Hey! That was an alliteration! Kind of… some people say you have to have three words that start with the same letter to have an alliteration, but some say you only need two. I'm never quite sure if I can call things alliterations or not if there's only two…"

Roy blinked at him from beneath his domino mask. What kind of tangent was that? Dick wasn't even that bad! Okay, that was a lie. Dick was worse with random, all over the place tangents in the middle of perfectly normal conversations. Eventually rolling his eyes, Roy said, "Whatever. Yeah, I got you a suit. It's one of Flash's old prototype suits that isn't quite as good as his current one, but it's close enough. It's basically an all-black version of what he wears but with an arrow where his lightning bolt normally goes." He got the suit out as he was talking, tossing it to Momentum who barely managed to catch it. Roy rolled his eyes again even though no one could see it, "I'm calling you Arrow whether you like it or not because anything else is a waste of time. Get changed and then I'll tell you what we're doing."

Momentum nodded and shot off, disappearing into another room of the compound. Roy really wished he had thought to install cameras in the building beforehand so he could have put a face to this villainous speedster. Ah well, there was always next time. Roy had been based out of this old warehouse the entire time he'd been going out as Red Arrow. When Momentum came back, Roy could honestly say that there was no way anyone would recognize him. His costume normally kept him pretty covered in the first place and without his hair showing, there was no way people would be able to make the connection.

Roy nodded at him and then began explaining the situation, "I need you to get into a criminals only bar in the Glades. I need you to make buddy buddy with someone who can tell you what I want to know. Find them. Get them drunk, talk them into a corner, whatever. Just get them to trust you enough to tell you where this guy is." He held up a picture, this one decorated with a masked man. This one was wearing a trench coat with a mask that was solid black other than the two white circles, one within the other. Roy finished with, "As far as I can tell, this guy goes by the name Onomatopoeia and when he talks, the only things he says are onomatopoeias. I've got a lot of evidence linking him to some murdered vigilantes. He seems to go after the non-powered ones. Being non-powered myself, I take offense to that. All I want you to do is find out where he is and tell me. Good?"

Momentum smirked, "So you admit to being a vigilante?"

"I'm not a vigilante!" Roy growled before pinching his nose and saying, "Do you have anything intelligent to ask?"

"Why can't you do this yourself?" Momentum shifted his stance so his arms were crossed. His lips turned down and his shoulders hunched in. It was obvious that he was actually getting serious.

Roy reciprocated that by mirroring Momentum's stance and saying, "I don't want Red Arrow to be associated with criminals. I want him to be a sign of hope for the people. Because that's what heroes are: they're a sign a hope."

Roy got the impression Momentum was rolling his eyes when the young supervillain said, "And you couldn't possibly just make yourself another outfit."

"Do you want to help or not?" Roy hissed.

There was a long pause and Roy inwardly panicked for a moment thinking that he read the speedster wrong and maybe the kid wasn't as willing to help as he'd thought, but then Momentum stares at him again, mask to mask, and says just as seriously as the first time they made a deal, "I'll do it."


	8. Criminal Bar

WWWWWW

Wally was seriously regretting all of his life choices right about then. The bar hadn't been that hard to get into. It was a bar for criminals, so they didn't care how old you were as long as you kept your powers in check (if you had any, of course). Therefore, it wasn't that difficult for Wally to get in with a few words distorted by his vibrating vocal chords and a quick demonstration of his super speedy pick-pocketing skills. But once he got inside… there came the problem.

It wasn't that he had a problem talking to people. That wasn't it at all. He was a pretty outgoing guy and was always ready to strike up a conversation with someone if he thought it would make them feel better. So starting the conversation wasn't the problem. The problem was keeping the conversation going. He didn't know how to get information from someone! Yeah, he was pretty alright at making deals with other criminals, but that was hardly the same thing! And besides, wouldn't it be really suspicious if the newcomer started digging for info the first chance he got? That would be super seedy. And, surprisingly enough, the bar actually wasn't that seedy. It was really rather nice, actually. The furniture was classy and the ground clean and smooth, not sticky and dirt ridden like some of the other bars Wally had seen in his life.

"New here, friend?" A voice came from behind Wally, causing him to twist around suddenly (luckily not at super speed; that kind of thing can throw people off at first). He came face to face with a man who had short, curly, black hair and pale skin. His 'mask' (one of the requirements to get in was a mask in case a police officer got in somehow. Most didn't want to be caught out like that) was a pair of large, white sunglasses with what looked like opaque black lens.

Wally bobbed his head in a nod and said, "You?"

"Nah, I'm a regular here. This place is one of the good ones, you know?" The man said easily, something cocky in his voice, but something delicate too, like wrung out rubber that just wouldn't go back into the right shape anymore.

Wally laughed along with the man, saying, "Yeah, I know what you mean. It's nice to see that there's a place in the world for us somewhere."

"Such morbid thoughts! Why don't we go drink those away, yeah?" the black haired man smiled charmingly.

Putting on his own grin (that, surprisingly, wasn't faked), Wally nodded and walked toward a booth with the man, the two sitting down on opposite sides and flagging down a waitress. The woman was wearing a mask just like everyone else, but she was dressed as a waitress version of Catwoman. Looking around, Wally realized that all the workers were dressed in mock versions of various famous villains. He even saw a Captain Cold waitress. And oh how much he wanted to snap a picture of that and spread it through the Rogues. Len would be  _furious_. Except, wait… they can't know that he's doing this. He can't tell them.

Wally's drinking buddy wore a sympathetic expression when Wally looked back up, "Life not going the way you want, huh? You seem more than a little down in the dumps."

Wally did what he's always done; he deflected, "You don't seem all that thrilled with life yourself." It was true. There was stubble in uneven swatches across his chin and his hair wasn't as slick and cool as it looked from a distance. His skin was sallow and pale.

The laugh the man gave was rather self-deprecating, "Yeah… what can I say? Eel's the name and safecracking's the game, but that game don't pay well. It would if we did a little better than little small bit crime, but my ring's not the best. Girlfriend left me this morning too. Can't say the day got any better from there on. You didn't answer my question though, kid. What's eating you?"

"I'm not a kid!" Wally huffed. Was he seriously that short? How could everyone tell? Their meals and drinks came before Eel could answer. Wally took a bite of his burger before washing down that  _heaven_  with some of the beer. Even though his highly enhanced metabolism prevented him from getting drunk, he always feel pleasantly rebellious when he drank.

Eel gave him a dubious look before taking a long sip of his own beer, slamming it down on the table and biting out of his burger, "Wa'ever, kid. I don' care 'ow old y' are, 'm jus' sayin' dat y' loo' li' a kid. C'mon, dough, y' c'n tell me wa's wrong. I be' it 'elps!"

For a moment, Wally just stared at him, trying to comprehend whatever it was that Eel had just tried to say to him through that giant bite of burger. After he got it, he shrugged uncomfortably. He couldn't tell Eel what was  _actually_ bothering him. That would go bad fast. He didn't want to lie either! Eel seemed legitimately nice and the man was obviously having a hard time. He didn't deserve being lied to. Then again, he was a criminal, so… maybe he deserved an edited version of the truth? This was certainly one way for Wally to get the info.

So Wally sighed and leaned on his elbow, taking another swig of beer and quickly devouring a couple of fries before speaking, "Like, I get the appeal of trying to do bigger crime and all that, but it's not all that awesome when you're not that good at it. I tried stealing from this city's big shot – what was it? Queen or something? Out of nowhere this Red Arrow guy ambushed me. I barely got out of there! Now the guy won't leave. He just keeps hounding me. I can't get any work done! As good as a drink or two or five might be, a way to permanently get rid of that vigilante would be the real solution. Maybe I could  _finally_  get a job."

Eel had perked up partway through and leaned forward a little bit, motioning for Wally to move the rest of the way. Eel talked quietly, rushed, "I know a guy. He's a little wacked in the head, but he's good for stuff like this. I heard he's already taken out two vigilantes. An acquaintance of mine knows him. He goes by some weird name. Onomato or something? Omatopia? Onomatia? No! Onomatopoeia! Because he only uses sounds to talk. Weird, right?"

Wally wrinkled his nose, not actually sure if the man could see it or not, "Yeah, that is weird. Sure a guy like that can be trusted? Some of those supervillains - or whatever it is they call people who actively go against heroes – have some serious problems." He was highly aware of the irony of what he was saying, but decided to ignore it in favor of info gathering.

"Yeah man! My associate knows what he's talking about when he recommends people. This guy can get the job done and get it done well. All your problems will be washed away like rain." Eel leaned back in his seat, hands clasped, giving the impression that his eyes were dancing underneath those thick white glasses. There was just something about this guy that stretched until he was filling the room.

Wally threw back his head and laughed, "Did you ever consider a job as a salesperson? If being a criminal doesn't pan out, this might be the better option. I'm sold. Can you get me in contact with this acquaintance anytime soon?"

"Soon? My friend, I can get you in contact with him  _now_." Eel grinned and before Wally could say anything back, Eel was flagging down some man in a gold cowl, motioning him over to their booth and sitting him down, talking conspiratorially before the man was even settled in, "My man, you know that Onomatopoeia guy you were telling me about? Think you can give my new friend here the low down on how to get in contact with him? Kid's got a job for Onomatopoeia but doesn't know how to reach him."

The guy in the gold cowl gave Wally a dubious look, obviously doubting the validity of Wally actually needing to hire a hitman. Wally nodded to him and took another swig of his beer. The guy sighed and said, "Onomatopoeia does not take payments. He only kills non-powered vigilantes. You must convince him that the person you wish killed fits that description and he will kill them for you. Is this understood?" Wally nodded seriously and the man gave him a business card. It was pure black with two circles made of white text within each other. The larger circle held a number where the smaller circle held the words  _click, click, riiiing_. It was kind of creepy and super shady, but whatever. The guy gave Wally one last look before finishing, "You need to explain the situation and give a place and time for the two of you to meet. If he wishes to meet with you, he will say  _ka-ching_. I'll let him know you're going to call. What do I call you to tell him?"

Wally inwardly panicked. What should he call Wally? The Arrow nickname that Red Arrow gave him was too obvious. So… Wally smiled and took the black business card, "Call me Kid."

The man in the gold cowl nodded seriously and pushed another business card into Wally's hand; this one was white with gold lettering proclaiming the stranger to be Phillip Cobb: 'underworld informant'. The man then scampered off, heading towards the table he'd originally been going for before Eel had stopped him. Speaking of Eel, the man was grinning at him and taking a drink of his beer, "Look at you! You'll be back to doing jobs in no time. Didn't I tell you it'd help if you told someone your problems."

"Yeah, you did." Wally grinned, "Now I've just got to figure out a way to help you with your problems. I'm not sure I can do much about that bum ring you're with, but I can help with the girlfriend thing."

"Is that so?" The man asked, grin taking on a different edge as he talked, somehow seeming more genuine.

"Oh yeah, totally. What you obviously didn't notice when you sat down with me is how Catwoman over there responded to you. She jumped at the chance to come serve you. You said you're a regular here, right? How often is she your waitress?" Wally said, eyebrows wiggling and a grin stretched across his face.

Eel looked flabbergasted, "No way! She can't really like me like that, can she? She's super hot. I certainly wouldn't mind dating her. But there's no way she's interested."

"Trust me, dude. She's interested. Flirt her up and ask her out. Trust me, it'll work. I'm going to go get this over with. Thanks for the advice, Eel. Maybe I'll come back someday." Wally grinned, saluting him farewell and starting to leave.

Eel stretched out his arm, barely catching the edge of Wally's suit before turning the speedster around and pushing a business card into Wally's hand and waving in farewell, "You ever need some more awesome advice, or a safe cracked, you know where to find me, Kid!" Wally grinned one more time and then disappeared into the crowd, slipping his way outside and into the after midnight glow of the slums of Star City. Wally hoped that Eel wouldn't be too upset once he realized that Wally left him with the whole bill.

RRRRRR

Roy was grudgingly impressed. The little ginger speedster was in that bar for less than a half an hour and got three business cards out of it, including the one he'd gone in there to get. Talk about successful mission. He was a bit miffed that the kid was planning on using him as bait, but he was also a little impressed by the quick thinking he'd shown, so he wouldn't say anything about it. Roy was glad he'd made this deal with that lonely speedster in that lonely little alleyway. He still felt guilty about what he was doing to the Rogues (which, he really shouldn't because they're villains and don't deserve to have someone as awesome as Arrow – or, well, Momentum to them since he's only Arrow to Roy - apparently is) and he still felt guilty about keeping this from Barry (which, he really shouldn't because Barry technically never told him to tell the scarlet speedster if he was in contact with Arrow).

As like last time, Arrow sped into the room before the guilt could get too crushing and Roy started talking before the kid could, "Call the number. Set up a meeting for a few nights from now at midnight. Get there and wait for Onomatopoeia. Distract him until I tell you to and then I'll take him out while you leave. I'll make sure that it seems like I was following you so you still have some cred on the streets."

Arrow scowled, "You do it. Call him, set up a meet with him, then take him down. You can call him a couple hours later as me and leave a message saying that I had seen you following me and hadn't wanted to lead you to him. Then my street cred is in tack and I don't have to keep trying to sneak out of an unfamiliar house."

"Unfamiliar house?" Roy scowled.

Arrow scowled deeper, "Is that seriously what you got from that? Are you going to go with my idea or no?"

"No, I'm not going to go with your idea. We're going with my idea. I'm in charge. And what do you mean by unfamiliar house?" Roy asked.

"The Rogues are on vacation and I haven't been to this safe house yet. No need to get so touchy about it, jeez." Arrow sighed. For a moment the two of them just stared at each other. Then Arrow threw his head back and groaned, "Fine! I'll do it! But I probably shouldn't do it now. I should probably wait long enough for Phillip Cobb or whatever his name was to call Onomatopoeia and tell him to expect my call."

Roy grumbled, "Fine. What do you want to do in the mean time?"

"Well," Arrow started and Roy could already tell that he wasn't going to like this idea. The speedster continued, "Since my criminal informant name is apparently Arrow since you're stubborn and stupid, I think it would make sense if I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow."

"No." Roy gritted his teeth. Did Momentum really think that he could just call Roy stupid and then ask him to teach something? How stupid was that little speedster?

"Ppppplllllleeeeaaaasssseeeee." Arrow begged, hands clasped and head tilted upwards, mask only partially taking away from the effect of the puppy dog face Roy was on the receiving end of. The ruby archer had the strangest feeling that this kid's puppy dog eyes would be almost as bad as Robin's.

" _No_." Roy said more emphatically this time. He knew it wouldn't do any good, though. Arrow reminded Roy of Robin and he knew that the kid wouldn't give up something he wanted after a few 'no's.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Arrow started up the mantra of, "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, pl-,"

Roy cut him off there, "Fine! You are  _so_  freaking  _annoying_!"

"I know, right? It's a skill." Arrow grinned. Roy just rolled his eyes in response.

THREE HOURS LATER

Roy actually had to fight to wipe the grin off his face. He'd taken the first half an hour or so getting Arrow used to holding a bow, teaching him how to string it and hold it correctly and what the arm motions should look like. Then he spent the next half an hour going over the same things with the arrow itself – how to make it, how to hold it, where to set it on the string, so on so forth. The next couple of hours had been practice. Roy had growled at the kid a couple of times, but that only got the kid to growl back, so Roy eventually had to wrestle his emotions into order and try actual patience when teaching Arrow. Just now, Arrow managed to hit the circle right outside the bullseye. It was a one-off and probably not reproducible, but it was impressive for someone who was learning for the first time today.

The grin was eventually wiped off when Arrow set down the bow and took off the quiver, saying, "I should probably call Onomatopoeia now. It's getting pretty early and sometimes one of the older Rogues gets up early from nightmares or something and they always check on us kids before going downstairs. So, I'm gonna go call Onomatopoeia."

Roy cleared his throat, "Yeah, whatever." He kind of hadn't wanted this to end. Once they got into a pattern, teaching Momentum was actually kind of fun. He certainly hadn't wanted a reminder of what he was doing to the Rogues. When Arrow started dialing the number, Roy said, "Put it on speaker phone."

Arrow nodded and finally finished putting in the number. The phone rang for a little bit, the two of them holding their breaths as they waited for someone to answer. Suddenly the ringing stopped and a voice said, "Click."

Arrow cleared his throat and glanced nervously at Roy before starting to talk, "Hey, Mr. Cobb said he'd call you and say that Kid was calling? I'm Kid. So, I got your business card because I want a vigilante gone. He's been dogging me and stopping my from pulling crimes for a bit now and it's getting on my nerves. I heard you only deal with the non-powered ones, so I just wanted to let you know that he's non-powered. How about we talk the rest over at the warehouse on the corner of Mills Road and South Avenue three nights from now at midnight? Does that sound alright to you?" The both waited, breathes baited as the silence stretched on. Roy found himself grudgingly impressed again by Arrow. The kid talked to other criminals like a pro. He had this friendly voice and open tone that just worked.

The moment of silence was broken by the voice on the other line, "Ka-ching." And then dial tone. Onomatopoeia had hung up.

"Dang! That was so stressful!" Arrow said, laughing slightly and tucking the phone back in a pocket.

"You did okay at it, though." Roy said gruffly.

"Aw! I knew you cared!" Arrow grinned.

Roy just shoved him on the shoulder and said, "You should probably head back to the Rogues. Leave the suit here and head out in yours. Meet my back here in three days at midnight, got it?" Momentum nodded and zipped away to do as Roy had said. It was only seconds later before the speedster was gone, leaving nothing behind but a gust of wind.

Sighing, Roy sat down with his arrows, lovingly going over them and checking their tips and their tricks. There was always something like this for heroes – something that pulled them to their superhero alter egos just as much as the idea of saving people did. His was arrows. Ollie's was the arrows too. Dinah loved the way punching things felt; loved the burn in her muscles and the way she felt like she was dancing. Robin had his acrobatics. He told Roy one time that every time he did a flip to take out a thug, it made him feel like he was doing this specifically for his parents.

Cleaning and sharpening and just handling his arrows was Roy's way to calm down. It was his way to work through the things spinning around in his head and make at least semi-thought through decisions. Like what to do about this. He loved being Red Arrow. It made him feel free in ways he never got to experience when he worked as Speedy. Roy hadn't joined the 'Young Justice League' or whatever it was called because it was just another way to keep the teen heroes from being themselves. Sure, they were going out on their own and making mistakes on their own, but all of their missions were assigned by Batman and they had to go through a certain number of hours of training a week unless they had a proper excuse. They could still be benched. They had to go to therapy sessions if something went especially bad. That wasn't what Roy wanted.

Roy wanted freedom to save who he wanted when he wanted the way he wanted. He was old enough to strike out on his own now and he was sorely tempted to do it. He'd stashed away enough money to get a relatively nice apartment and stock it with the necessary furniture and keep himself fed. He knew a few places that were willing to give him a job despite his attitude and his richness. So it wouldn't be all that hard to break out from under Oliver's wing and forge a new life for him, one that he controlled.

But would it be worth it? Oliver would be furious at him and the two of them could never stop screaming at each other if one of them was seriously mad. He'd basically break all relations with his adopted father and probably with Dinah too, although she wouldn't let go that easily. And, as much as the two of them fought and argued and disagreed, Roy didn't want to not be on good terms with Ollie. He actually meant a lot to Roy. He was something special in Roy's sucky life and he didn't want to lose that.

If it was between possibly losing Ollie, possibly not losing him and finally having freedom, though? Roy was pretty sure he knew which one he'd take.

A buzzing in Roy's ear startled him before Robin's voice filled the same space, " _Yo, Roy. I know it's super early, but my tracker puts you at your Red Arrow warehouse, so I know you're up. Wanna go find one of those all-night diners and eat breakfast there for a while?_ "

Roy smiled to himself since he knew no one could see it, "You only want to eat breakfast at an absurdly early hour when you've got a problem."

" _Ha, probably. If I, hypothetically, did have a problem, you think you could help me with it?_ " Robin shot back.

"Only if you help me with mine, too." Roy responded, grinning at this point. There was a reason Robin was one of his best friends. He'd ask the little acrobat about his Red Arrow vs. Speedy dilemma and he'd help Robin with whatever he was having issues with while he was at it.

It didn't take long for Roy to change into his civvies and put on his dark black glasses before heading to the nearest zeta beam.

Dick was waiting for Roy at their favorite 24 hour diner. It was this small, homey place in South Dakota near where the hero Man-of-Bats worked. Due to there being a hero in the area, there was a zeta beam around there too. Roy and Dick had often taken use of this old family owned restaurant to talk over problems without having to worry about overprotective parent figures and being recognized by potential paparazzi (although that didn't stop them from wearing dark glasses to cover their eyes). It was kind of amazing.

The moment Roy got there, he sat down heavily in his usual side of their usual booth and grunted, "I'm going first whether you like it or not. Help me decide something."

Dick grinned, eyes lighting up and a cackle leaving his throat. At this point, the people in the diner didn't even bother giving him strange looks anymore. The two of them were their weird regulars, so they never got bothered. Before either of them could say anything, the waitress went and dropped off Roy's usual, smiling at them and wishing them a good meal before heading back to the counter where she could continue working on her college work. She was here working with her family as a way for her to not feel guilty about the fact that they were paying for her college degree. Dick finally responded, "I can't help you decide if you don't tell me what the problem is."

"Shut up, idiot. I was getting there." Roy scowled before continuing, "I'm thinking about going solo, full-time."

Dick gave him a dubious look, "You think that often and you never do."

"This time I'm being serious, though. I've got enough money to get an apartment and all the things I need there. I've got a job waiting for me where the people running the place won't care if I skip out for an hour or two and where I'll still be paid enough. I've built up citizen support for Red Arrow and I've even started building an informant network. I could do it. I  _should_ do it." Roy said, his scowl wavering as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to lighten or get worse.

The young acrobat smiled at Roy, "Have you tried talking to Oliver and Dinah about it? That might actually help more than it would hurt. Sit them down and just really talk. Maybe warn them beforehand that they won't like where the conversation is going and tell them to just wait until you're done to start asking. Explain to them that it's not anyone's fault that you want this, but it's just what you want."

"Ollie would kill me before I finished talking." Roy groaned.

Dick cackled, "We both know that Dinah would kick his butt before he even got close. She's traught enough most of the time to listen to what you have to say before reacting to it."

A new voice from the side piped into the conversation, "You certainly do enjoy making up words." Roy blinked beneath his dark glasses; he could have sworn he knew that voice.

Apparently he wasn't the only one. Dick turned to face the newcomer and asked, "John?"

"Freddie." John, evidently, nodded back, looking exhausted. His fire red hair looked windswept and tousled and he was wearing sweatpants that looked more like pajama bottoms than anything else. He had on a thin coat that was zipped up to his chin. His eyes were emerald green, but they looked dull with tiredness and there was a sort of cautious edge to them that Roy instantly recognized from kids off the streets. His skin was pale and there were freckles dusting across his nose. He looked like some sort of runaway.

Roy faced Dick, mouthing the word, "Freddie?" Dick shrugged and made a 'tell you later' kind of motion. Roy wasn't sure he'd heard that alias before and he could only guess at where it came from.

Shrugging to himself, Roy tuned back into the conversation. Dick was saying, "I thought you lived in Central City. What are you doing up here in South Dakota?"

John shrugged, "Vacation. Do you always wear those glasses? You can't expect me to believe you're blind, but it's kind of weird that you're wearing those glasses if you aren't. Especially since it's, like, four in the morning or something. Three forty or something like that. I don't know. It's early, so it's weird that you're both wearing dark sunglasses."

"But it's more fun that way." Dick grinned, his eyebrows dancing.

John gave him an unimpressed look, "You're so weird."

"You're one to talk!" Dick accused, pointing a finger and everything. Roy wanted to crawl under the table and die.

John frowned, "I am one to talk. I have the basic human attributes required to be able to perform the function of speaking. And I certainly do it better than you."

Dick gaped at John and Roy couldn't help the laugh that burst out. He laughed, "You dorks are so stupid."

"Am not!" Both of them cried at the same time. They were like petulant kids. It was ridiculous.

Then Dick sent Roy a  _look_  and Roy had learned to read Dick's body language and the parts of his face that he could see, so the archer knew exactly what his acrobatic friend was asking him. He was asking for permission to let John sit with them. Roy nodded imperceptibly. Their problems could wait until later. Dick pulled John next to him, flagging down the waitress and poking John until he ordered, the scowl on his face only lifted when he politely addressed the waitress. She giggled and promised that his meal would be out in a second. John scowled at Dick, "Butt head!"

"Cat dung!" Dick threw back, tongue sticking out.

Roy rolled his eyes, "How did you two meet anyways?"

"I was out running and was taking a break on a bench at the park in Central and this one sat next to me and started interrogating me before saying I was his friend and leaving me with his phone number so we could get into contact again. We've texted back and forth a little and played some online games. I actually haven't seen him since that first day." John responded, rolling his green eyes. That feeling of familiarity struck Roy again, but he couldn't figure it out.

"He just looked so lonely that I couldn't help but go and keep him company! He ran off before I could do anything more, though." Dick chirped.

John scowled again (he seemed to do that a lot) and leaned back in his seat before jerking forward again to help the waitress set down his meal. He'd gotten a really good looking milkshake and a chicken with potatoes on the side. Roy raised his eyebrows, "Nice breakfast you've got there."

"Nah man," John grinned, "This is just the appetizer for breakfast. A growing teen needs to eat."

"That, I can agree with you about." Dick said and dug into his own meal.

"So, what's got you out here so early in the morning all alone?" Roy asked. Dick seemed comfortable with this person and Roy knew that people had to be pretty thoroughly vetted for a Bat to talk with them as often as it seemed the two talked, but Roy would be doing his own investigation. Dick was like a little brother to him and he wasn't going to let some stranger hurt his little brother.

John scowled  _again_ , "You're as bad as he is! Always asking me questions and bothering me with things."

Dick ignored his accusation and turned to Roy, "He's really good at dodging questions." For some reason, that niggled at something in Roy's memory. There was  _something_  about this kid. Dick kept going, addressing John this time, "Sooooo, what  _are_  you doing here this early?"

"It's a little something called minding my own business. You might want to try it sometime." John growled.

Dick sent him a puppy dog look that was only slightly diminished by the dark glasses on his face, "Joooooohhhhhhnnnnn… ppppplllllleeeeaaaaaassseeee."

"Fine!" John threw his hands in the air and turned to Roy, "Is he always like this?" Roy gave an understanding nod and John grinned at him quickly – a little flash of teeth and a crinkle at the corners of his eyes before going on, "I've lived on the streets for a while and only recently starting living with a family, so I was just getting used to living in a house and now, only a month or so in, we go on vacation to a new house. I'm not used to it yet. I had to get out. So I left a note and went for a run. This place seemed nice, so I decided I'd eat here and head back."

Dick waggled his eyebrows again, "So your vacation home is near here?"

"I refuse to answer that you little creeper." John stated imperiously. Roy was shocked to realize that John was almost all the way through his food. That kid could  _eat_. He wouldn't be surprised if this really was just an appetizer for the kid.

Dick all of a sudden got serious, head turning slightly towards Roy for a second before turning back towards John, "Your family won't get mad, will they?"

John shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable, "Don't know. I've never done this before. I've always told someone where I'm going. Won't your parents be mad that you two are out this early in morning."

"This is implying that they know." Roy said with a grin. This kid didn't seem so bad after all. That feeling of recognition still bothered him, but not enough for him to actively dislike someone who actually had a sense of humor and who was obviously going to end up being a good friend for Dick.

John grinned back, looking positively feral. Then those lips settled back into his customary scowl and he leaned back in his seat, meal devoured. He seemed like a large cat relaxing after a meal, ready for a nap. That is, until his phone started ringing. Groaning, John grabbed the smartphone out of his pocket. Roy was pretty sure he saw another phone in there, but that one looked more like the kind that Roy used for his burner phones. John groaned again, "And there's my family. They're probably going to kill me."

"If you don't want to go back…" Dick trailed off, a worried tilt to his face.

John smiled, "Nah, man. It's all good." He answered the phone and stepped a little ways away. Both of them could hear him anyways. He said, "Yeah.… Yes, I'm fine.… I left a note!... I wasn't going to wake someone because I couldn't sleep and wanted to get out of the house…. Yes, I am…. Of course he is. He said that as long as I let someone know where I'm going and I have my phone on me, I should be fine. A note should count!... Yes,  _mother_ …. What? You're acting like a mother, although, sometimes I wonder. You and our 'fearless leader' sometimes seem a little…. Shutting up now…. I'll be back soon…. Bye."

He walked back over to them, "That was my cue to leave. Talk to you later, Freddie. Nice to meet you, mysterious friend who also wears stupidly dark glasses at a ridiculously early time in the morning." He pulled out his wallet and put down the amount he owed and closed it again, stuffing it in a wallet. That was enough, though. It was enough for Roy to see.

In the wallet were typical wallet things, but three things stuck out. Three business cards, to be exact. One for an underworld informant. One for a safecracker. And one that had just a number and some onomatopoeias. Roy had seen those same three business cards about a half an hour ago. When his criminal informant Arrow showed them to him after coming back with the information from the criminal bar. Arrow, who is also known as Momentum, one of the Rogues. The Rogues, who are based in Central City. The same city 'John' and Dick met. They met when 'John' was resting from a  _run_. That fire engine red hair. There was no way this was his life. Since when did it get  _this_  complicated? But even he couldn't deny it.

John and Momentum were the same person.


	9. Making Decisions

DDDDDD

Dick watched John walk away with a knot of worry settled just beneath his collarbone. Sure, John had said that he was fine going back to his family and the side of the conversation they could hear was pretty laidback and it didn't seem like the redhead felt threatened by any part of it. But John might have just been playing a part for them. He could be going back to an abusive household that he wants to escape. Was Dick letting a friend go back to somewhere dangerous? No. He was not going to think about this. He was going to trust John to tell him if he really needed to get out of that house. He was going to trust John to ask for help if necessary.

Decision made, Dick turned back to Roy – who looked shell-shocked. Roy's face was slack, his eyebrows tented upwards and his mouth fallen partially open. Dick asked curiously, "Did you see a supervillain out the window or something? What's got you so surprised?"

Roy turned his attention back to Dick and he shifted in his seat, leaning back against the booth before shifting back into a sitting upwards position as if the chair had burned him. His mouth was twisted into a conflicted line and he stayed silent. For a long moment, Dick thought that Roy wasn't going to say anything, but then he spoke, "Nothing. I just thought I saw something, but it was nothing."

Dick narrowed his eyes suspiciously. That was  _not_  nothing. That was most definitely something. He opened his mouth to ask, but Roy cut him off, raising a hand placatingly, "Look, I'll tell you eventually, okay? But we both came here with problems that we're already struggling with. I'm not going to pile another problem on top. All that was, was me realizing something. That's it. I'll tell you when I'm ready, okay?"

That still wasn't right. This was more important than Roy was leading on, but if he was willing to leave it at that, then so was Dick. Roy was one of the few people that Dick trusted whole-heartedly and he wouldn't go back on that now. He'd trust Roy to tell him. So, that was that. Dick launched back into the former problem, "So, are you going to go solo permanently?"

Roy wrinkled his nose. This was obviously a difficult decision for him. When he spoke again, he sounded so tired, "What do you think I should do?"

Dick hesitated. He knew that Roy would actually take his advice under consideration – not just go with whatever he suggested. So he had to actually make what he said count. He had to tell the truth. Did he think that Roy should go solo? Or did he think that Roy was going to get himself killed out there all alone? Then again, he wouldn't be all that alone. He'd always have backup even if it wasn't as reliable as having a teammate by your side at all times. He could always call on Dinah or Oliver or even Artemis when she was patrolling in Star. And he'd obviously thought it out, making contingency plans like the best of them. He had an idea for a source of income and he already had a place picked out to live. He'd mentioned starting to set up an underground information network which was one of the most important skills for a hero to have and it was often one of the things that younger heroes didn't get until later on in their lives. It was the hardest part about going solo. If he's already started, though… Dick looked up at Roy, "I think you should do it. I think you should go solo and be Red Arrow fulltime."

The ginger sipped on his soda, mulling over the words. They sat in silence for a while, the two of them comfortable enough with each other for the silence to comfort rather than stifle. Eventually, Roy said, voice sure if small, "Alright. I'll tell Dinah and Ollie tomorrow. I think I'll need a full night's rest before dropping that bomb."

"I don't know." Dick grinned, "It might be easier when you're tired. Go through the whole thing a little dazed. I feel like that's a good strategy."

"No wonder Bats grounds you all the time." Roy said. Dick pouted. That was just plain rude.

Roy rolled his eyes and leaned back against the leather seat of the booth, "Your turn. Spill. What's your problem?"

"You just met him." Dick groaned, dramatically flopping onto the table, careful to miss any sort of food or spill that might be on the table.

Roy stiffened at the mention of John (although Dick had no idea why; he'd thought that the two seemed to be getting off pretty well in the short time they'd interacted) before purposefully relaxing again, forcing his muscles to go lax, "And why would John be causing you problems… Freddie, was it?"

"Oh shut up." Dick frowned fondly, "It was an alias that I've been building. Freddie Dinardo. Pure awesomeness. It was the only name that came to mind when he asked. I wasn't going to say Robin because, well, obvious reasons. And I certainly wasn't going to say Richard Grayson because that's the number one way to lose the potential of a real friend and get yourself a groupie instead. So that name came up instead."

"So?" Roy asked, finally looking actually relaxed instead of a forced relaxedness like before, "What's the big problem then?"

"I don't know a  _thing_  about him!" Dick wailed pathetically. "I'm almost certain that John isn't his real name, but it's not like I can confront him about it because I'm pretty sure he knows that Freddie's not my real name either and then things would just get awkward. Beyond that, I know that he was a street kid who now lives with a family. He had red hair. He lives in Central City. I know  _nothing about him_. Its infuriating the way he dodges questions like they're bullets or something!"

"I'm pretty sure it's a thing called privacy." Roy said with a smirk.

Dick pouted because his friend just didn't get it, "Yeah, but I'm  _me_." He didn't let Roy say something sarcastic about that before plunging onwards, "And I  _have_  to know things about my friends. I mean, I've got trackers and you and know your entire history, including everything you've bought and your favorite toy as a kid. It's what I do. And I don't even know this guy's name! But he's  _awesome_ to hang out with. If I could figure out a way to do it without him finding out more about me, I'd go hang with him more often, but I can't. Plus, Bruce would be furious if he realized that I was texting someone as often as I test John without knowing everything about them."

Roy butted in, cutting off Dick's rant, "Are you so sure that Bruce would be that mad?"

Dick tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean? Of course he would! Safety first, always."

Roy frowned a little in thought, "Not necessarily. Bruce left the two of us alone on a rooftop in Star City the first time we met. That wasn't safety. That was stupidity. Except not really because he just wanted you to make some friends. I think that's all he really wants for you – to be happy. If you made a friend and actually legitimately wanted to be friends with that person, then I can't see him begrudging you that."

The young acrobat's voice was pitifully small when he asked, "You really think so?" He had always wanted friends. It never seemed so because he was always aloof at school and suspicious around other heroes. There were very few people that he could just  _be_  around. Roy was one of them and he was always grateful to him for that, but as awesome as Roy was, Dick wanted more. Roy wasn't always there and he was going through problems and struggles of his own. John was his chance to have someone else. John didn't know that he was famous, didn't know that he was a hero. He never cared when Dick up and left the online games they were playing because there was some sort of monster attacking Gotham that he had to go deal with. He never cared that Dick didn't tell him a thing about himself. John didn't care about all the things that normally got in the way of Dick having friends and… that was nice. Unprecedented, even.

The archer's normally grumpy expression curved up into a smile, "Yes, I really think so."

Dick's shoulders sagged in relief. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for these troublemakers. Roy was going to tell Dinah and Oliver about going solo as Red Arrow and Dick was going to tell Bruce and Alfred about John. Fantastic.

WWWWWW

Wally slunk into the kitchen of the Minnesota safe house. He was faced with the entirety of the Rogues gathered there, breakfast laid out and waiting for him (no one commented on the fact that it was just after four in the morning and it was ridiculous for them all to be awake right now). He waved lamely, muttering, "'Sup?"

"Don't ya 'sup us, ya dill!" Digger snarled, eyebrows drawn low over his eyes, mouth set in an angry frown.

"Where were you?" Mark asked, voice tired and strained.

Wally shrugged, "I went for a run."

"To where?" Sam demanded, hands on his hips and lips curled downwards.

Len was, surprisingly, the one on Wally's side, "That doesn't matter. I've told him that he doesn't need to tell us where he goes. He just has to tell us that he's leaving. Which he didn't do. Notes don't cut it, kid. Don't try that again." That was it. He went back to sipping his orange juice and reading the newspaper. Wally tried his best not to gape.

Sam didn't have the same reservations. He openly gaped at their leader, "Seriously? That's it? What if he gets attacked or something while he's out there? We would have no way of knowing where he was or how to help him! We wouldn't even know he was in trouble until too late!"

"He can handle himself." Mick stated, settling down in his spot at the table, quickly digging into his sausage breakfast burrito.

Mark seemed to disagree, "He's not anywhere near trained enough to go up against a hero or something. What if one of them recognized him somehow? Then what are we supposed to do? He can't go against them yet!"

Digger threw in, "And what if those Cadmus freaks got ahold o' him? You heard about that super-clone or whatever it is that they found in one o' those labs. Whatever those figjams are up ta, they managed ta get Superman blood samples. Ya think they can't get Wally too?"

Wally bristled. Sure, he was just starting out as a hero, but that didn't mean he was stupid. He'd survived on the streets a lot longer than most people. Wally threw out, "It's not like I'm standing right here or anything. Please, go on and insult me like I'm not here. I don't mind." He slammed himself down into his seat and angrily bit into the (amazing) cinnamon roll at his place.

A hand fell lightly on his shoulder and Wally turned slightly to see the concerned gaze of Hartley, "We know that you can handle yourself most of the time, but there are people out there who are trained to take down supers. You aren't trained to deal with that. We just want to help."

"Did you ever think I might not want that help? Did you ever think that I might want to do some things for myself? I've been on my own for years!" Wally's voice grew quieter, less angry and more resigned as he continued, "I'm not used to people caring. Sometimes it just gets… a little overwhelming. I mean, it's great that you guys care and that you guys want to help. That means a lot and everything, but… I'm not used to it. I feel like I'm being smothered because you care so much. I just, I don't… I don't know. I don't know how to deal with it." Wally clenched his jaw and stared resolutely at his food. He hated all this mushy stuff. There was something about the Rogues that made him feel not so bad about showing his feelings, though. There were a lot of good things that came from being with the Rogues. Like this food that he was eating. Like the roof over his head. Like the nice clothes he was wearing. Like the idea of actually being cared about. Sighing and closing his eyes, Wally said, "Sorry. I'll let people know when I have to go for a run. I won't tell you where I'm going though."

He couldn't tell them. Correction: he couldn't lie to them about it. He was not going to tell them about his thing with Speedy – Red Arrow, whatever he wanted to go by – and he certainly wasn't going to try to make up lies about why else he would go to Star City.

There must have been something in his eyes, or maybe it was his earlier concession; Wally couldn't tell, but Sam sighed and said, "Alright kid. Just – just do your best to stay safe, alright? And call one of us if you're ever in trouble." Wally nodded mutely. The rest of breakfast was spent in silence.

It wasn't until Wally was halfway up the stairs that someone spoke again. It was Digger. He'd followed the teen to staircase and cleared his throat, "Sorry ankle-biter. We didn't mean ta snap at ya. We're just worry about ya. It's not just you either. If Hartley pulled that same stunt, he'd be getting the third degree too. Probably not James though. Who knows with that one? Anyways, get some sleep, Wally."

Wally smiled in response, a small twitch of his lips and Digger nodded to him and walked back towards another room on the first floor. Wally ran the rest of the way up to his room. He hadn't been lying when he said that them caring was smothering him, but he didn't dislike it. He just wasn't used to it. He desperately,  _desperately_  wanted to be used to it, though.

When he got back to his room, he flopped on his bed and tugged his jacket and shirt off, snuggling under his blankets and relaxing into his pillows. He hadn't actually slept at all last night and it was starting to catch up to him. Ah, whatever. All's well that ends well. Speaking of which, he had several messages on his burner phone from Speedy and Freddie. He read the one from Freddie first.

_Freddie (3:57am):_

_Text me when you get to your house._

_John (4:33am):_

_I was literally just talking to you. What could you possibly need?_

_Freddie (4:33am):_

_Someone's grumpy. I was just checking to make sure you got home safe._

_John (4:34am):_

_Lame worrywart._

_Freddie (4:34am):_

_Loser weirdo._

_Why are you so grumpy by the way?_

_John (4:35am):_

_I literally have not slept since yesterday and I had to get up at the buttcrack of dawn yesterday to go on vacation. I'm tired. That's why I'm grumpy. So I'm going to sleep. Have fun with your weird friend._

_Freddie (4:35am):_

_:P Sleep tight! I hope the bed bugs bite!_

_John (4:36am):_

_Jerk_

_Freddie (4:36am):_

_I thought you were going to sleep XD_

_John?_

_John…_

_Don't ignore me…_

_Fine. Be that way_

Wally rolled his eyes fondly. Freddie (or whatever his actual name was; don't think he didn't see the way his ginger friend was confused when Wally called the black haired kid Freddie) was quickly becoming the best friend Wally had ever had. Mind, that wasn't saying much since Wally honestly couldn't remember calling anyone not-family a friend before. No one wanted to be friends with a freak like him. Shaking his head to dislodge those thoughts (that, strangely enough, haven't been plaguing him as often since he joined the Rogues), Wally checked his phone for the text from Speedy.

_Speedy (3:59am):_

_We need to talk NOW. Call me as soon as possible._

Well that was ominous. Frowning and checking the locks on his door, Wally sighed and walked over to his bathroom, shutting and locking that door too. Listening to make sure that he couldn't hear any of the other Rogues on this floor, Wally pulled out the burner phone and found Speedy's number (not that hard when there were only two) and pressed 'call'.

Moments later, Speedy's voice came over the line, voice tense, " _Momentum?_ "

"No, it's Captain Cold. Who do you think it is?" Wally snapped back. He really just wanted to go to sleep. Sighing, he asked, "What was so important that you needed to bother me with it at this ridiculous time in the morning. Did something go wrong with the Onomatopoeia case?"

There was a pause and Wally held back another sigh. Why was he wasting his time doing this? Then Speedy said, " _What's your real name, Momentum?_ "

Wally's breath caught in his throat and his voice was cold when he said, "I believe that sort of information trade was  _not_  a part of our deal. And it's certainly none of your business."

" _You made it my business by meeting with someone who I've sworn to protect._ " Speedy said, voice low.

Rolling his eyes, Wally growled out, "I am not in the mood for riddles right now. Speak straight. Why do you think you deserve to know my name?"

Speedy growled back, " _I protect Roy Harper and you just met with him in a diner in South Dakota._ "

It felt like all of the air left his lungs. It was like being punched by a bullet. No, no, no. This was  _wrong_. Wally's voice sounded strangled, even to him, "Even if that was true, there was no way that you would have made it to South Dakota in the time that's elapsed since we last saw each other."

" _Heroes are resourceful. We have… alternate methods._ " Speedy responded, voice a little softer than before. Wally wasn't sure why. He was tearing apart Wally's worlds, so he obviously didn't care how Wally felt. Speed spoke again when it became clear that Wally wasn't going to, " _Look, I want this deal to work out, but we're going to need a little trust for it to work like I want it to._ "

"You ever think of how I might want it to work? Because it isn't like that. Besides, you're one to talk about trust. I doubt you'd give me your name in return." Wally snarled. This was bad. This was badbadbadbadbadbad.

Speedy sighed, " _Look, kid. I'm going solo soon. I am going to become Red Arrow full time. That means that I need to have some sort of informant network set up and I'll need one that I can trust. If that means that I trust you with my name, then… so be it._ "

That was certainly unexpected. Wally hadn't really thought that he would do that. He was a hero. Why would he be okay with some no good informant who was part of a powerful supervillain group knowing his civilian identity? Why was this happening to him? He'd just needed to get out of the house and go on a run and eat something to calm down and he'd found that little diner. That  _stupid_ diner was the reason behind all his troubles. If he hadn't gone there… if he hadn't gone there… he wouldn't have gotten to see Freddie again. And he wouldn't have felt relaxed enough to come home. And there was a good chance that this conversation would have been happening anyways.

Wally slid to the floor bonelessly, his head smacking against the bathroom wall as he curled his knees into his chest. This wasn't what he'd wanted. This wasn't what he'd wanted at all. His voice was quieter, some of the righteous anger gone, when he spoke again, "You didn't answer my first question. What about how I want it to work?"

" _How do you want it to work?_ " Speedy asked immediately, sounding concerned.

"I just… I just wanted to help people. I didn't want to get involved. I didn't want to lie to my family and deceive people. I just wanted to help." Wally said hopelessly. Everything was falling apart.

Speedy's voice was infinitely softer when he said, " _Then why don't you become a hero? Heroes don't have to lie. Heroes just have to help whenever they can_."

Wally closed his eyes and thought about the question. Why didn't he become a hero? Simple. He said, "The Rogues are my family. No one's ever cared about me like they do." He didn't know why he was telling the grumpy hero this. He didn't know why he was talking to him like they were friends. They weren't friends. They weren't even acquaintances. He was just using Wally! Unbidden, thoughts of learning how to shoot a bow and arrow with him earlier that night came to mind. That had been a lot of fun. It'd been how Wally had always imagined having friends would be like. He and Speedy – well, Red Arrow now apparently – had texted about some non-informant related things in the time that they'd been in contact. They talked about a lot of other things while Red Arrow was teaching him how to shoot. He'd even gotten Red Arrow to laugh once or twice. Would it be so bad to trust him? To have him trust Wally? Would it be so bad to start reaching out and making a friend?

He knew the Rogues wouldn't approve. He knew that Red Arrow would try to figure things out about Wally's past. He knew that there was no chance that this wouldn't end up in someone getting hurt. But the chance to help people and stay with his family and make a friend all at the same time? These were the three things that Wally had always dreamt of, alone and broken and bleeding in his house with his father passed out on the couch. And now he had a chance at all of them? It was too good to be true, a devil's trap dressed up to look like an angel's gift. He knew that, but… was that information enough to sway him from evil's path of lies and deceit?

Wally's voice was rough with something that might have been tears, "I'll only tell you what I've told the Rogues. Maybe,  _maybe_ , I'll tell you more later."

There was a pause and then Red Arrow spoke again, " _I can live with that_."

The speedster let the silence brew for a long moment, not in any particular hurry to change it. Then he let out a shaky breath and said, "My name's Wally. That's all I've told the Rogues about my name. They know that I lived on the streets before they found me and they know that I have an aunt and uncle that are still alive. That's all they know. That's all you get to know."

Red Arrow's response was immediate, " _Wally. That's a stupid name._ "

"I bet yours is going to be even more stupid." Wally shot back, a simultaneous attempt to make the situation light and to remind Red Arrow of the deal they struck. An eye for an eye. A name for a name.

Red Arrow's response was a lot less immediate, hesitation clear in his voice before he sighed and said, " _I'm Roy Harper_."

"You lied to me!" Wally yelped, only barely remembering that he should stay a little quiet because the Rogues were, in fact, still in the house.

Roy freaking Harper chuckled at him, " _Yeah I did. I had a secret ID to protect. I recognized you because you were stupid enough to leave those business cards in your wallet._ "

Wally scowled, "Sorry I didn't want to wake my family up and have them interrogate me on why I was sneaking back into the house late at night. Luckily they only know about me sneaking out for a run later in the morning."

" _Shouldn't have gotten caught._ " Roy (and didn't it feel weird calling a hero by their first name… other than the Flash of course, but Wally didn't want to think about him right then) said.

Wally's scowl deepened, "Who was that kid who you were sitting with?"

" _You mean Freddie? I thought you already knew him… John._ " Roy said and Wally could  _hear_  the smirk.

Wally rolled his eyes and cradled the phone a little closer to his ear, tightening the little ball he was curled in, "Yeah right. I totally believe that's his real name. You had no idea who 'Freddie' was when I said that."

Roy's voice was uncharacteristically serious when he said, " _Maybe he has a reason for not wanting you to know who he is. Maybe he wants to tell you when he's ready._ " There was accusation there in that statement and maybe a little bit of a threat and a question all at once, like he wasn't sure if he should be threatening Wally, but was ready to do it anyways based on Wally's imminent response.

Wally sighed and said, "Yeah, okay. I can get that. It's not like it's any different than what I'm doing."

Roy hesitated for a moment before saying, " _Is there anyone you're_ not _doing that with?_ " Wally sucked in a breath at that accusation and Roy continued, " _I mean, from what it sounds like, the people who know you the best are the Rogues. They don't even know your last name. Or your first name even. You can't convince me that Wally's not a nickname or a shortened version of a name or whatever. I mean, does_ anyone _know who you really are?_ "

There was a long pause. Wally felt that tightness in his throat again and wasn't surprised when he voice came out funny, "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in a couple days… Roy."

Roy sighed and then, " _Goodnight, Wally._ " There was a click and then dial tone. Wally crawled into bed that night feeling miserable and sorry for himself. Because who else was there to feel sorry for him? No one knew him. It didn't come as a surprise when the nightmares started almost immediately after he drifted off.

 _Wally slid to the floor bonelessly, his head smacking against the science lab's wall as he curled his knees into his chest. He was sick and tired of this. He was sick and tired of being_ so scared _about the thought of going home. He was sick and tired of trying to cover the bruises with foundation he'd nicked from the store because his dad never bothered with a job anymore and foundation was too expensive to waste precious money on. The beer was too expensive to waste their precious money on too, but Wally's dad hadn't appreciated it when he'd told the man that._

_Most of all, though, Wally was sick and tired of the fact that it didn't stop once he got to school. Sure, it was milder here. The attacks were limited to being shoved into lockers and kicked around a bit at the back of the school. The teachers never bothered to look back there because they were in a slum school and everyone knew that the back of the school was where the kids went to get high. The teachers knew that pretty much everyone was getting high, so there was no use in cutting down attendance by getting all of them arrested._

_The teachers ignored him. He'd learned early on in his freshman year that the teachers didn't care about the smart ones. It wasn't their fault. The school was understaffed and underfunded and that meant that all the focus went towards just making sure that there was enough incentive for the kids to just stay in school at the very least and then do semi-okay in the classes at the very most. So the ones who did well and got A's were pushed to the back of the faculty's mind while they focused on the potential dropouts and the failing kids instead._

_At least some of the teachers were kind enough to leave their rooms open during lunch for interested students. Wally had been coming to the science room and reading the high level science books in the back room with the chemicals. Sometimes he brought his own from the library just so he could understand a concept necessary to read one of Mr. Brownswick's books. It was definitely his favorite place to be. How could he not be happy there? He was surrounded by the varying scents of chemicals, all organized concisely and according to a specific set of rules. There were books filled with tons of new concepts to learn in a huge bookshelf covering one wall of the room. And there was a big window on the other side, letting in sunshine on good days, or the commiserating boom of thunder on bad ones. There was a collection of warnings on a pouch outside about the hazards that came with having an openable window in a room full of chemicals, but no one had complained enough about it yet to get it changed. No one cared._

_And that was where Wally was that day during lunch. He wasn't taking advantage of the collection of books yet. He was just… decompressing. He needed that moment to relax and breath in and hold and breath out and tell himself that this won't be for much longer. If he found a way to get a job and maybe stole a little bit here and there and saved it all up, there was a good chance that he could have himself emancipated in just over five more years. Only a little more than five years of this left. He could do this. He could do this._

_He was Wally West. He'd lived through all sorts of things and turned out pretty much alright. He wasn't like the sad faced, pale kids at the back of the school whose bruises were the only things that outnumbered the holes in the crooks of their elbows. He wasn't like the snarling, defiant kids who got dragged out of school, kicking and screaming, whose acts of violence were only outshined by the jagged cuts of a broken beer bottle on their sides from the night before. He wasn't like the smiling pictures of kids (who only looked that happy when they were faking it) on the Wall of Remembrance that the school had put up to remind everyone of the ones who thought that the chance of an afterlife was better than whatever it was they were going through at home. He wasn't like them. He promised himself that he'd get through this without going to those extremes. And he was the only one he could trust to keep a promise._

_Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris certainly couldn't keep their promise. They hadn't come to see him in the seven months since he'd been back with his father. Thoughts of those two always made him feel bitter, but it gave him a sense of understanding too. If even the Flash – regarded by many as one of the kindest men to live – wanted to get rid of him, then there was definitely something wrong with Wally, not with others. And yeah, he knew his uncle was the Flash. It had taken him until about a week before he left to figure it out, but they had left him at home alone and he'd found a ring shoved incriminatingly behind the old wine rack._

_It was a beautiful ring, all gold with a gorgeous lightning bolt on the top. A lightning bolt just like the Flash's. When Wally pressed a button and the Flash superhero suit came flying out, there was no doubt about it. His uncle was the Flash. Wally wasn't going to tell Uncle Barry that, though. He'd wait faithfully for the man who was so much better than his father to tell him when he was ready. And everything would be perfect. But Uncle Barry never told Wally. He sent him back to his father, back to this miserable school and the bullies that inhabited it, sent him back to a desolate present that gave little hope for a better future._

_So yeah, obviously Wally was a little down in the dumps that day. The weather seemed to agree with him since there was a storm raging outside, flashes (oh how he hated that word) of lightning forking across the sky and rain pounding at the windows and thunder booming in anger almost before the lightning had stopped._

_But the storm didn't bother Wally. It never did. Storms were his only friends because his father was, stupidly enough, afraid of storms. He always disappeared into some dark room for hours before a storm was supposed to hit and for hours after the last pitter of rain had stopped. Storms were his reprieve from the pain. Until that day. Until the day when, like everyone else in his life, the storms betrayed him._

_He had just unloosened from his tight little ball of misery and was reaching for a book when lightning struck the tree a block from Wally's window. It was an arching beam of white light and a pause and then a shuddering scream as the tree starting to twist over, fire blooming from its depths as it struggled to hold on and survive this horror. It didn't survive. Wally watched as the tree fell to its death. He didn't know that the tree was about to be a metaphor for his future._

_Because he was a stupid ten year old kid and because he was a scientist at heart and because he was oh so curious, Wally pressed his face to the glass of the window and watched the tree burn with big green eyes._

_He's still not sure how it happened. There were tons of taller things around him in the vicinity. If anything, it should have hit the roof above him, not the window. There was even a lightning pole on the roof! And yet, he was still struck with dawning horror as he saw another bolt of that powerful, untameable lightning come towards the area around him. Except, it wasn't going to the area around him. It was going for_ him _._

_Wally had only scrambled back a few feet from the window when the lightning bolt smashed through the glass, melting it and turning the chunks into works of art before making a straight line to Wally._

_Instant pain. Flash of white. More pain. Sizzling jolts through every finger and toe. Feet leaving the ground. Something slamming into his back. Lightning sparking off his skin. Pain, so much pain. So, so much pain. A crunch from beneath him. The sharp pinch of glass nicking his skin and going through it. A puff of itchy powder falling around him. The lightning melting it to his skin. Plastic breaking open with a pop. Liquid spreading around him – was it the chemicals or his blood? He couldn't tell through all the pain. Pain, pain, pain, pain, painpainpainpain then –_

_Endless darkness and peace._

Wally launched from the bed with a gasp, instinctually speeding up. There was a good chance that his bedsheets would have ended up in flames if there hadn't been a comforting voice next to him, telling him that it was all going to be okay and that everything was fine and he was fine and it was okay. Wally wasn't sure whose voice it was and at the moment, he was too worked up to care. Why did it have to be  _that_  nightmare? Getting struck by that lightning was the single most painful thing that Wally had ever gone through in his life. That pain still haunted him now and again, obviously, but only when – oh. That's why. Now that the rushing in his ears had stopped and the voice murmuring reassurances had quieted a little, Wally could hear it. There was a storm outside.

The redhead cuddled into himself, curling into his blanket and shaking with every new blast of wind and every sudden burst of light from the storm outside. The hand kept rubbing soothing circles into his back and Wally finally recognized it as Mark who was comforting him. Mark asked softly, "You okay there, kiddo?"

The speedster wanted desperately to lie. He wanted to brush off the comfort and say that he was fine and go back to his pitiful existence alone, but… maybe he didn't really want that. Maybe that was just years of conditioning on the streets that told him he wanted that. So, when Wally finally answered, it was him saying, "I'm scared of storms."

Mark's laugh was breathy, startled, but his pause was only momentary before he joked, "You and I are going to have a hard time going on heists together then, kid."

Wally shook his head, not wanting Mark to think that, "No. Your storms are… different. I don't know how, but they're different. They didn't hurt me." Wally's mind was still muddled, his breathing labored and his heart panicky.

Brows furrowed, Mark pulled Wally even closer, keeping the blanket wrapped around the teen's shoulders, "And they never will. Got that? My storms will only ever protect you. Okay?"

"…okay." Wally answered, voice small. He just wanted to go back to sleep. He wanted to curl into the tiniest possible ball and sleep all these jittery, anxious, live wire nerves away. He didn't want to remember the past anymore. But the storm wouldn't let him forget.

Mark kept up the soothing circles, but once it became obvious that Wally wasn't going to be calming down anytime soon, Mark bodily picked Wally up (blankets and all) and started carrying him down the stairs. Wally made a questioning noise in the back of his throat, but Mark just shushed him gently and kept going. Wally decided that, today at least, he was going to trust the man without question. He didn't have the energy for anything else. And maybe, just maybe, he wanted to trust someone without question.

It wasn't long before they made it to the main floor. Peeking over Mark's arm and a nest of blanket, Wally saw that all the older Rogues were together in the living room, watching some sort of mushy romance soap opera. If Wally wasn't so scared right about then, he'd had definitely made fun of them for it.

Their concern when Mark carried him down the stairs was almost comical. A lot of them leaped out of their chairs, already hovering. Len was the only one who didn't move, simply setting down his book of crossword puzzles and raising an eyebrow at the Weather Wizard, "What happened?"

Mark shrugged, "The kid's afraid of storms. He did assure me, though, that it won't be a problem when we're working together. Something about my storms not having hurt him? I don't know."

Mick's voice was soft and gruff at the same time, like gritty, powdery flakes of ash, "When did a storm hurt you, Wally?"

Wally whimpered a little bit in response. Bright lightning had just forked down outside the window, still a mile or so away, but closer than Wally ever wanted it to be ever again. Mark settled him down next to Sam, taking the other side of the speedster and re-wrapping the blanket around him, even going so far as to add another one. When Wally didn't answer, Mick got up, muttering about making some hot chocolate. Len's voice was firmer, but still soft, like packing snow verses powdery snow, "You can trust us Wally. When did a storm hurt you? We'll do our best to make sure it never happens again."

Wally paused for an instant, his street smarts coming out for a second and battling against the urge to answer. He couldn't tell them this! He's already given them so much ammo to use against him. Wally shook his head to himself; they wouldn't do that. Voice barely above a whisper, Wally answered his question, "I was struck by lightning. I was at school in the chemical closet during lunch and the lightning just… it shouldn't have hit me. It always goes for the tallest thing, the path of least resistance. But then it hit me and knocked me into the chemicals. The lightning hurt so bad and then the chemicals were burning my skin and together…" He took a deep shuddering breath before finishing, "I've never hurt so bad in my life." Mark started rubbing soothing circles on his back again.

There was something like dawning understanding on Len's face, "That's where you got your powers." It wasn't said like a question, but Wally nodded anyways. Len's face remained emotionless, but Wally saw the little tremors of anger that ran through the man's fists. Len said, "We won't let that happen again. We will do everything to make sure that a bolt of lightning never hits you again, okay?"

"You can't control nature." Wally said tiredly. Being so scared, on the verge of panic, it drained you. It took every last drop of energy out of you and left you a shell. It sucked.

Mark grinned at him, eyes warm, "Wanna bet?"

"And even if he can't manage it, I'll pull you through a mirror somewhere and get you away from it. The mirror dimension isn't all that pleasant, but it's got to be better than getting struck by lightning. Again." Sam said, directing a soft, fond look at Wally.

Digger fingered his boomerangs, "I'd throw a metal boomerang at it or some'n. That would stop it, right?"

Sam rolled his eyes, "You are such an imbecile."

"Who are ya calling an imbecile ya flamin' galah?" Digger growled.

Len rolled his eyes, "Boys, boys. Get a hold of yourselves. Besides, the commercial break is almost over."

Mark's head whipped towards the screen, "What'd I miss? Who did Betty end up saying was her father?"

Mick returned, pressing the hot chocolate into Wally's still slightly shaking hands and making sure he had it before returning to his seat, and grunting, "You'll never guess."

Mark seemed honestly distressed as he said, "Please don't tell me it was Jacob. I don't think I can handle it being Jacob."

"It was Darrel." Sam said, already nodding to confirm that what he said was indeed true.

"No way." Mark said, shaking his head in denial. The rest of the group just nodded at him, expressions solemn. Mark paled, "How could Darrel do that to Sally? I thought he honestly loved her."

Len's voice was completely deadpan when he said, "We all did." And Wally couldn't help it. He laughed. It was a small thing, but it was bright and it was open and for a brief, brief moment he could forget that there was a storm raging outside the house. The other Rogues just laughed with him until the commercial ended and they all tripped over themselves to get the group quiet enough to hear what was going on.

Wally drifted off with a smile on his lips and the thought that maybe the Flash would be okay with them stealing stuff if he saw them like this floating through his head.

DDDDDD

Dick grinned as he shot off a text to John. He knew the redhead probably wouldn't answer for a while because he didn't often answer right away, but Dick had just seen the weirdest commercial and he'd had to tell John about it. It was just necessary. Artemis's voice came from behind him, not even startling him in the slightest, "You texting your girlfriend or something?"

"Nah, just a friend." Dick said, smiling.

Artemis raised an eyebrow at him as she sashayed into the kitchen, grabbing an apple and leaping onto the island facing Dick where he was sitting at a barstool, "Uh huh,  _sure_. Everyone smiles like that for a 'friend'."

"Just because I make better friends than you doesn't mean you have to get offended, Artemis." Dick stated imperiously, nose in the air.

"Whatever Boy Blunder." Artemis rolled her eyes, taking another bite out of her apple. She wrinkled her nose a little bit, "Is something burning?"

Dick nodded seriously and, not moments later, Megan came flying (literally flying, not just running quickly) into the room, wailing, "My cookies!" Dick and Artemis shared a long suffering look over the Martian's head. The green-skinned girl was the sweetest thing ever and could cook food comparable to Iris Allen's (not as good as Alfred's, but no one's was), but she got distracted too easily. It normally ended with something burning or a large pile of pepper instead of a sprinkle. It was sweet that she tried at the very least.

Sighing over her lost cookies, Megan looked up, "Oh! Artemis, Robin! I hadn't even realized that you two had come to the Cave. Do we have training today?"

"Nah," Artemis said around her apple, "No one's home until tomorrow afternoon and I figured I didn't want to spend the night alone, so I came here instead."

That answer lit Megan's face, a large smile covering her face, "Then we can have a sleepover! We should do each other's hair!" Artemis smiled at her, laughing a little and nodding. Megan turned to Dick, "You seem really happy Robin. Happier than usual." It was true. He was practically riding off an endorphin high. Roy had been right (for once) when he'd said that Bruce would approve of Dick making a friend even if he hadn't extensively researched him. Bruce had even gone so far as to say that he'd be more than willing to let the kid come to the mansion whenever Dick was ready to tell John who he really was.

Artemis rolled his eyes, "He was texting his girlfriend."

And of course Conner walked into the room immediately afterwards, "Robin has a girlfriend?"

"Congratulations, Robin. I had not realized you had a girlfriend." Kaldur added, walking into the room after Conner. Dick tried to protest, but Batman's voice announcing a new mission came over the comms, drowning him out. Artemis smirked at Dick. Dick stuck his tongue out in response.

Batman had on his usual scowl when they entered the room, so Dick's gaze skipped right over him and landed on Flash, who was, for some unknown reason, standing in the room. Batman started talking the moment everyone was in the room, "Flash has reason to believe that there is dissension occurring in Gorilla City. He will be talking to a friend of him from there, Solovar, but he doesn't believe that Solovar will tell him everything that's going on. We need you all to go in there and find out if there is a problem or not. Don't let the gorillas see you. Don't let them capture you. This is a delicate operation. Don't mess up." And then he was gone in a billow of his cape and a final ferocious scowl.

Flash rolled his eyes and sped closer to them, "It's really not all that big. You know that they wouldn't be letting you do this if, like, the hero-gorilla relations could be horribly damaged by this because the rest of the JL are losers – except GL of course because he's my best buddy and he's awesome… and GA. He's awesome too. Anyways, it's not that big of a deal. If you get captured, you'll be stuck in a gorilla prison for a couple of hours until I realize you're missing or whatever, but gorilla prisons aren't actually that bad. Not even on my worst imprisonments list. Well, gorilla prisons in Gorilla City. Grodd's little prisons  _suck_. I mean, seriously? They're awful. There are mind tricks and everything. And it smells like wet gorilla – way worse than wet dog can I just say. Solovar is pretty chill and he'll get that I was just trying to help him. We're pretty good friends all things considered. Something about shared experience of insane super smart evil gorillas giving us bonding points or something that let us be friends. Honestly, anyone who dealt with Grodd for that long is a saint if that tells you how chill Solovar is. Have you guys ever gone against Grodd? I know little bird here has, but I'm not sure about the rest of you. I don't personally recommend it. Well, are we going or no? I heard something about a bioship. That sounds super slow, but we'll see. Do you really fly it with your mind?" The scarlet speedster rolled it all off his tongue in one breath. Dick was so impressed.

The rest of the group seemed shocked. They all moved jerkily towards the bioship, seemingly in a daze after Flash's tirade. Things like that certainly took some getting used to. Dick personally loved them. It was better than Bruce's sullen silences sometimes. Barry was  _awesome_. The man went through so much in his life – his mom's murder, his dad's arrest, life in the orphanage, his dad's death, getting struck by lightning, all the friend's he's lost, his nephew disappearing, the continual reemergence of Reverse Flash and Zoom. Flash was a real hero for staying so happy and optimistic through all of the horrors that came with being a hero.

The group boarded the bioship and Flash cheerfully brought them all into a conversation, making them laugh and smile and relaxing them in preparation for the upcoming mission. Dick settled into his seat with a smile on his lips and the thought that maybe the Rogues would be okay with arresting them if they saw him like this floating through his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I completely forgot to post yesterday and the day before that. Like, was so exhausted that I honest to goodness just did not post these. Here are the last two days' posts and today! Sorry about that!


	10. Gorilla City

WWWWWW

Wally gave Len a  _Look_. It was his attempt at the  _Look_  that Mick always gave people when he thought they were being so exceptionally stupid that he didn't even have words for it. Wally thought that he pulled it off pretty well. The  _Look_  Len sent him back told him otherwise and, honestly? Len's  _Look_  was a lot worse than Mick's. Len rolled his eyes and said, "It won't even take that long. There are three crates for you to pick up and run over to the location just outside Central. Just run them one at a time and you will be fine."

"I've never gone on a solo mission before and you want my first one to be in  _Gorilla City_? Running a mission for  _Gorilla Grodd_?" Wally squeaked.

Len rolled his eyes, "I think you'd rather like Grodd. He's certainly an… acquired taste, but he tolerates intelligent people, so you might have a chance at a civil conversation with him."

"Since when did we even do jobs for Grodd?" Wally threw in desperately. This was ridiculous!

"We don't do them  _for_  him. We do them  _with_  him." Hartley huffed from where he was idly sketching out a new song. James was occasionally drawing random notes on the page and Wally was pretty sure Hartley hadn't even realized yet. It would be interesting when Hartley tried to play it. Maybe James's additions would help?

"Anyways," Len added, "We've found it beneficial to enter an agreement with Grodd and that includes us working together with him on a few heists and doing the grunt work on others that we can't be there for. Since Zoom is still in Central, we obviously can't pull off a hit, but he still can. So we let him do jobs and he watches over the city while we're gone. A beneficial agreement."

"That's stupid." Wally said flatly.

"It doesn't matter how stupid you think it is, Wally. Now, get going. Go to the warehouse in Central and Grodd will tell you what to do once you get to Gorilla City. Make sure to keep your comms with you. Call us if you need us." Len said calmly, fingering his cold gun. If Wally didn't know that Len would never hurt him, then he'd have been a bit concerned.

As it was, he had other things to be concerned about, "Wait, wait, wait! Hold up. Aren't I just grabbing some crates from Gorilla City? I didn't realize I'd have to, like,  _interact_  with things!" Despite this, Wally was still pulling on his Momentum suit. That was a testament at how good the Rogues were at wrangling speedsters.

Len raised an eyebrow, "You're a speedster. I thought speedsters were supposed to be social. You're supposed to enjoy interacting with people."

Wally grunted at him, "Here's the speedsters you knew before me: Flash, Zoom, and Reverse Flash. How many of those are particularly friendly and social? One of them. That's one in three, a 33.333% chance that I would be social based on previous interactions. Those aren't, statistically, the best odds. And besides, these are  _talking gorillas_ , not people."

"Gorillas are people too. Don't be specist." Hartley tsked from where he was vigorously erasing a portion of the song.

"That is so not a word." Wally protested.

"Doesn't mean the point doesn't stand." Hartley muttered around the pencil in his mouth, using one hand to hold the sheet still and the other to erase an even larger portion of song.

Wally pouted, "You're just grumpy because your music isn't working out." The glare Hartley leveled at Wally put Len and Mick's to shame. Wally was kind of terrified. Was this what the infamous Bat Glare was like? He couldn't imagine it was worse…

Len sighed and pinched his nose, "Just go Wally. Good luck." Wally saluted him and sped off.

He wasn't entirely against this mission, okay? There were just a few parts he didn't like. For example: this was his first ever solo mission and that more than a little nerve wracking. Also, he hadn't ever interacted with talking gorillas before and he wasn't sure how that was all going to go. He was a little worried that he'd offend Grodd and Grodd would, like, melt his brain or something awful like that. Turn him into a vegetable. Horrible stuff. Then again, he was going to talk to a talking gorilla. How cool was that? He'd always been fascinated by the telepathic gorilla that haunted Central City, but he'd always been too scared to actually go have a conversation with him. He was said to hate humans because they were tiny and pathetic and completely inferior to him. He'd also always wanted to see Gorilla City. It was supposed to be awesome and full of technological marvels and stuff and that would be so cool to see.

So there were good parts and bad parts to this mission, but that was probably to be expected with most missions. He'd just learn to deal with it.

And that thought found him skidding to a stop in front of Gorilla Grodd's… house? Warehouse? Storage place? Lair? Wally wasn't really sure, but it didn't look like much from where he was standing. Nothing like the Rogues' multiple hideouts across the city and, apparently, country. Bracing himself, Wally raised his hand and prepared to knock.

Only to find the door being pulled open by a really,  _really_  big gorilla. Wally felt his soul die a little bit at that sight. Grodd grabbed his arm and yanked him into the room, face twisted in displeasure. His voice was deep and smooth when he spoke, "It appears as though the Rogues have delegated this undertaking to a half grown adolescent."

Wally raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. He was not going to anger the gorilla if it was the last thing he did. Grodd grabbed a block of wood the size of a small paperback and handed it to Wally before he started talking, "The insignia on that fragment of wood will inform the guards that you have been sent by me. They will escort you to the location of the packages. Collect the packages one at a time and do not allow them to be damaged during the peregrination back to this location. Is this understood?"

Wally really shouldn't open his mouth. He should really just nod and get on with his day and  _not_  get eaten but instead, "Of course I understand. I'm not some sort of zounderkite."

For a moment, Grodd just blinked at Wally. Wally just blinked back. Why did he have to talk back to the really big gorilla? Grodd blinked once more then calmly asked, "What did you just say?"

Wally scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Um, zounderkite. It's a Victorian word that means idiot. You were using big words like peregrination, so I figured I'd use a kind of big word like zounderkite. It felt right at the moment?" He trailed off into a little laugh. He was so, so dead right now.

Grodd stared at him and Wally could not read that expression. Grodd said, "I have not perceived that word before."

Wally's laugh was still slightly awkward when he said, "Haha, yeah. Well, now you have."

He still could not tell what that look Grodd was giving him was, so he decided that he'd just focus on Grodd's next words, "You should start your travels, child. The sunlight only lasts so long." That was an obvious dismissal if Wally had ever heard one, so he started running almost as soon as Grodd stopped talking, rushing away as fast as he could because he hadn't been eaten by the gorilla and there seemed to actually be some sort of… camaraderie between them? Friendship? Acquaintance-ship? Wally wasn't quite sure. He attracted the weirdest people.

Like Freddie. Freddie was weird. He wouldn't tell Wally his real name and he always wore sunglasses. Him and Roy Harper had been wearing sunglasses in a restaurant at four in the morning! Well, it was understandable that Roy was wearing glasses. He hadn't wanted anyone to recognize him. Probably something to do with being famous and rich and not wanting to have to deal with that. Wait. Whoa. Rich people hang out with rich people, right? And if one rich person was hiding their identity, then certainly the rich person they were with would want to keep their identity hidden too, right? What if… Freddie was actually a rich kid?

Nah, that was stupid. Wally wasn't quite sure where these ideas came from sometimes. Rich people didn't interact with lowly street rats like Wally. Middle class people didn't even interact with lowly street rats like Wally. It was a fact of life. It was just the ways things were. Then again, the Rogues broke that status quo. They broke a lot of status quos when it came to Wally, making him wonder if any of those actually existed. Technically, all of the Rogues were super rich. They didn't come about that money in the most… honest way, but they were rich. All the money they made on a job was evenly distributed between everyone who worked the job. Wally himself had quite a bit of his own cash now, hidden away where no one would find it (hopefully). So maybe it wasn't as crazy as he thought it was that Freddie might be just as rich and/or famous as Roy. Or maybe it was still just as crazy because James was starting to rub off on him. Wally had promised Roy that he'd wait for Freddie to reveal himself. He wouldn't try to figure out who the kid was.

And… he was in Africa. Almost on top of Gorilla City if he remembered the coordinates correctly. And… there it was. Gorilla City. He didn't have time to slow down and take it in, but he did have a way to make what little time he did have last longer. Slowing down his perception, Wally glanced around him in awe. All around him was a collection of architectural masterpieces, crafter together and humming with electricity. The whole place must have some  _great_  tech. It was beautiful.

But then his time was up and he was facing the guards on the east end – the ones that Grodd had assured him were in the telepathic gorilla's pocket. Well, metaphorically of course. Grodd didn't have pockets. Even if he did, it would be very unlikely that these gorillas would fit in them. Of course, there was always a chance if someone was dedicated enough but… okay, off track. He needed to get his head in the game. Wally exchanged pleasantries with the guards and, when asked the reason for his visit, he gave them the block of wood that Grodd had bestowed upon him. Their expressions softened in understanding and with a quick beckon, they were leading him into the city.

And it was even cooler in there! He was wrong about the awesome tech. It wasn't awesome. It was… was… asterous! That was the only word that seemed to fit. The tech in Gorilla City was totally asterous. Grinning to himself, Wally crouched down into a squat and wiggled his gloved fingers under the plastic planks of the box. Plastic was a little weird, but also appreciated. He wasn't sure how well wooden crates would do at hundreds upon hundreds of miles per hour. Lifting, Wally was relieved to realize that the boxes weren't  _that_  heavy. Sure, he'd still be sore tomorrow, but he wouldn't feel the need to take a break halfway across the ocean either. Nodding to the guards once more, Wally settled the box in his arms and took off.

DDDDDD

Gorilla City was totally asterous. Barry had immediately set off to go talk to Solovar, telling the kids that they could basically do whatever they wanted to as long as they checked out a good portion of the city while he was talking with the leader. The guards had been adamant about the team of young heroes not going around the city without a proper entourage, so they'd had to wait until a tour guide was found and then they were off on a tour of Gorilla City. Led by a talking gorilla. One that couldn't read his mind and wasn't intent on basically destroying all of mankind. That was always nice. This was also nicer than what Batman had originally wanted the plan to go; the whole don't let the gorillas see you and don't get imprisoned by them thing seemed a lot more boring than a tour of the city.

The Team kept their eyes out for any suspicious business, but they also listened to the obviously abbreviated history of the lands they were walking. The guide was nice and explained things well and was good at keeping their attention without completely distracting them from their tasks. Dick thought that the gorillas were missing out on a seriously good tourist trade. They could get some real revenue coming in from that. He also felt like they wouldn't appreciate him telling them that. He wished he could tell John about this place. He had the strangest feeling that John would think it was just as asterous as Dick thought it was.

It wasn't until they walked almost to the other side of the city that things got really interesting, though. The group was eating some sort of gorilla delectable or something when a flash of yellow and red lightning caught their eyes as it sped out of the city. Artemis almost dropped her treat, barely catching it in time with a muttered curse. Kaldur reprimanded her quietly. Megan tilted her head curiously, "I wonder where Flash is going. I didn't think he was going to leave us in the city."

Dick narrowed his eyes, "I don't think that was the Flash."

"Who else in Gorilla City do you know that has super speed?" Artemis asked, an eyebrow arched so that it was visible beneath the mask.

Dick shrugged, "I don't know any other speedsters that'd be here, but Flash's lightning trail is different. Flash's is red lightning mainly because of the color of his suit. That was yellow lightning with hints of red."

"So someone with a mainly yellow suit was just speeding out of Gorilla City?" Conner asked, staring off in the direction of where the yellow lightning ball had headed off.

Their gorilla guide seemed calm for the problem at hand, projecting a sort of expectancy that confused Dick, "Oh, I'm sure it's nothing. That's one of the research centers and they do some strange experiments. It could be a hologram or some sort of robot or something. Maybe they're trying to recreate weather patterns and it went a little wrong? I hadn't meant to come this far anyways. Why don't we go ahead and head back? There's another gorilla treat I'd like you to try. It's quite good."

Kaldur seemed to have caught onto the guide's tone because he sent out a mental message over the link, _Our guide knows something is going on. I think she wants us to figure out what it is._

_Obviously. How are we going to do it without making her stop us? She's definitely being coerced or something,_ Artemis shot back.

Zatanna's mental voice was calm,  _I mean, we came with the Flash. I say we just tell the guide that we want to investigate it as a help to the Flash._ The others chimed in their agreement.

Kaldur was still skeptical,  _I am not certain that she will believe us or be reasonably convinced by that._

_Unless we give her a reason,_  Dick added,  _Tell her that the only speedster we know with that yellow to red ratio is Reverse Flash and there's a good chance that they could be in danger if it is Reverse Flash._  This time, everyone agreed and they focused back in on the moment.

Kaldur cleared his throat, "Perhaps we can wait on that other treat. I'm sure it's wonderful, but we would like to investigate this yellow lightning. The Flash has a villain who leaves a similar trail and we would like to ascertain that you are not in danger." The small, pleased smile that the guide sent their way was all the encouragement they needed.

Together, the Team moved as one, heading towards the science building that the yellow blur had shot out of. When they entered the warehouse like building, they were met with an opening hallway that held five things – two plastic crates and three guards. The expressions on the guards' faces were laughably shocked. One of them pointed accusingly at the Team's guide, "What are you doing Primat? You were told that this place was off limits! Especially to the little heroes!"

"Little?" Conner growled, but Artemis held him back with a look and an arm out over his chest. Surprisingly, Conner listened. Maybe those team-bonding activities were helping after all.

Primat, their guide, answered calmly, "I told them that I should not bring them here, but they saw what they believe to be a speedster who wears similar colors to one of the Flash's villains. I had no reason to stop them once they said that Gorilla City could be in danger. You must believe me, Tolifhar."

Tolifhar cast her a suspicious glance before throwing a worried look at the door behind the teenaged heroes. Dick raised an eyebrow; apparently that yellow streak would be coming back and Tolifhar didn't want them here for that. The guard gorilla glanced back at the heroes, "You children should not be here. That yellow streak was just an experiment that got out of the blast doors. It is dangerous for those not trained."

Kaldur didn't step down, though, "May I inquire what the experiment was about?"

Tolifhar's attempt at being friendly shut down at that statement, "That is not for humans to know. It is for Super-Simians of Gorilla City alone."

"Tolifhar! These are honored guests of King Solovar!" Primat scolded, obviously trying to stall. Dick was tensed, ready to put up a fight in order to stay. He could see the other members of his Team preparing to do the same.

Evidently, though, they didn't need to stall any further. They'd waited long enough. Before anyone could react to Primat's statement, the room was filled with bright yellow lightning as a figure rushed to a stop in the middle of the room. The figure froze and stared at them, simply saying, "Oops."

Dick took the frozen moment to glance the figure over. There was a strange symbol on his chest and he was wearing a skin-tight suit that was primarily yellow with a couple of red spots. His fire engine red hair was allowed loose, but his face was mostly covered by his brightly colored domino mask. Overall, Dick had never seen him before in his life. Kaldur apparently hadn't either because he called out, "Who are you?"

Mentally, Kaldur threw out,  _Miss Martian, send out a message to the Flash. Tell him that there's a speedster in a science building near the east entrance._

She sent back an affirmative right before the strange speedster answered back flippantly, "The name's Momentum. You haven't heard of me yet? I'm hurt!"

"We probably haven't heard of you because no one wants to talk about someone with that lame of a name." Artemis snorted.

Momentum scowled at her, "And who are you? Green Arrow Negative 2.0? You're certainly not good enough to be the upgraded version."

Artemis gave him a scowl to match, "I'm Artemis. You'd do well to remember that name because I'll be the one to kick your butt!"

The look Momentum sent her could only be described as 'unimpressed', "Uh huh. Sure. That's how it'd go. I don't think you're fast enough. Besides, who'd remember as stupid of a name as  _Artemis_?"

"Still better than Momentum!" Artemis snarled.

"I didn't name myself after a blood thirsty goddess who liked to turn men into animals and hunt them down!" Momentum snarled back.

Dick stepped forward, "Ladies! Ladies! You're both beautiful! Why don't we all calm down here?"

Apparently Dick had magical timing because the Flash showed up a second later. Oddly enough, he had the king of Gorilla City cradled in his arms. Dick discreetly took a picture of it. That was blackmail material if he ever saw it. Flash set Solovar down gently before grinning and throwing his arms out, "Momentum! My man, how are you?"

"I'm not your man certainly. I'm not your anything. I'd be better if you left me alone. How do I keep running into you? Aren't you supposed to be dealing with Zoom or something?" Momentum snarled and yeah, he'd been kind of mad at Artemis, but this was beyond mad. This was an underlying, simmering anger that hadn't been addressed in a long time.

Flash flinched back like he'd been hit and when he spoke, his voice was low and more bitter than Dick had ever heard, "I've dealt with Zoom. By the way, tell the Rogues thanks for the heads up. Where are you guys holed up anyways? I know you've got a couple of out of state safe houses, but I wasn't sure where you went this time."

"Maybe they didn't want you to know." Momentum stated coldly. Dick noticed that he was inching towards the plastic crates again, but Flash didn't seem concerned, so Dick just tensed, but didn't act.

Zatanna asked with confusion, "Since when did the Rogues have a speedster?"

Flash answered for Momentum, "It hasn't been that long – a month or so? He hasn't made his public debut yet. Captain Cold said something about not wanting to put him up against heroes yet. Speaking of which, what brings you here?"

"Well, it wasn't you. We didn't know there were going to be heroes around. It was supposed to be an easy pickup and run." Momentum shifted again, his hand flickering slightly before he settled again.

Flash must have seen something too fast for the rest of them to see because he narrowed his eyes and said, "Calling for backup? They won't get here fast enough. C'mon, Momentum. What's in the boxes?"

"Don't know." Momentum shrugged, actually leaning against the remaining two boxes.

Dick piped up, "Who are you running the boxes for?"

Momentum cast him a speculative glance before saying, "I don't see how that's any of your business."

"It is, however, my business." King Solovar announced. He did not seem amused.

"Mmm, yeah, no. I'm pretty sure you don't need to know. Well, I could always just pop back to the employer, maybe bring the last few boxes and ask him if he's all good with me telling you the plan. How's that sound? It sounds pretty good to me." Momentum gave them a winning grin.

Conner stated flatly, "No."

Momentum frowned, his head turning a little from side to side. He was looking for an escape. Before anyone could blink, he was whispering sorry and there was a blur of activity. Flash tried to catch him, but all Dick could see were rushes of reds and yellows and then, suddenly, Momentum and Flash were back, but there was someone missing. Zatanna called out, eyes wide, "Kaldur!"

Flash's voice was panicked when he asked, "What did you do to him?"

Momentum's voice was firm, but there was a layer of fear underneath, "Rogues don't hurt women and I wasn't willing to try to tangle with a half-Kryptonian clone or whatever you are and there was no way I was going against a Bat, so my only choice was Kaldur, apparently. He's an Atlantean, right? That means he doesn't like fire much. I forced a chemically induced fire that will burn inwards towards him an inch a minute. It won't kill him – Rogues don't kill, but he won't be feeling very good for a while. I hid him somewhere on Earth. His comm is left here and he's not close enough for the Martian to sense him. His water things or whatever are broken. So here's the deal: you can either stop me from taking these crates or you can find the Atlantean. It's up to you."

The look Flash was giving Momentum… Dick felt like he was intruding on something private. It was obvious that Flash was disappointed in Momentum. And the younger speedster looked like disappointing Flash was breaking his heart. Dick wasn't sure what their interactions were, but now wasn't the time. Kaldur was in danger! Flash clenched his fists… and then flew out the door, already racing around the world, trying to find their missing teammate. Artemis growled out, "Monster."

Momentum flinched as if he'd been hit, "At least I don't pretend to be anything else." The words weren't bitter or hate-filled. They were just sad. And then he was grabbing both crates and running out the door. He was slower than the other times, but that didn't tell Dick anything. Momentum probably really didn't know what was in the plastic containers and was just being safe just in case.

King Solovar had gathered up some other guards and they were restraining the three who'd been overseeing the operation, "Tolifhar. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Grodd was right. You're too soft. These heroes will only hurt our people. We are superior! Humans should kneel below us! Instead we hide ourselves away and segregate ourselves in this small patch of land. That is below us!" Tolifhar hissed.

Solovar reeled back, "This was Gorilla Grodd?"

"He was working with some group. They called themselves the Light. They were some of them mere humans, so they were foolish enough to give us advanced research for Grodd to use against Central City. He has no idea that he plans to use it against them! Idiot humans!" Tolifhar added. Solovar shook his head in disgust and sent the now prisoners away. Dick told himself to remember to talk to Kaldur and the rest of the Team about this. This wasn't the first time they'd heard the name 'The Light'.

Since Kaldur was gone, M'gann spoke up for the group, turning to Primat, "You knew that Grodd was planning this and you wanted to stop it, didn't you?"

Primat nodded, "They threatened me and said they would kill me if I breathed a word about this to anyone. I was so scared. When I heard that the human heroes would be coming, I figured that I would be able to 'accidently' get them to the right spot to discover the deceit."

Solovar nodded at her seriously, "You shall be rewarded."

Primat shook her head, "I cannot accept that. I allowed this happen. That yellow lightning speedster still took the crates to, presumably, Grodd. I have failed." She hung her head and Solovar moved to comfort her. He nodded to the heroes and motioned for them to stay where they were. Flash would return there.

Dick sighed; this was just a whole mess wasn't it? How did that speedster factor in? And why did his voice sound so hauntingly familiar?


	11. To Run

WWWWWW

Wally slunk into the safe house, spirits low and physically tired from his run. He could hear the Rogues in the kitchen, probably waiting for him. They had fully endorsed his plan and had even given him some suggestions that led to his idea of taking Kaldur and running with him, but Wally still felt like he failed. The worst part was: he didn't know who he felt like he failed. The mission was a success. Grodd had seemed pleased at the results despite the fact that Tolifhar had probably been arrested by King Solovar and the giant gorilla had even gone so far as to tell Wally that he did a good job. The Rogues were glad that he'd actually called when he needed help and they told him that his idea was good and that he pulled off the whole thing quite well, so it wasn't like they thought he failed. And they were the only ones who mattered, right? Wally didn't care what anyone else thought.

So why had the disappointed look on Uncle Barry's face make him feel like he failed something vital? Why did that man's opinion matter to Wally? Wally hated him. He never wanted to see him again. He never wanted to interact with the man. So why did he care? Was it just lingering feelings from when he was young and not yet abandoned? Wally had thought all of those feelings were wiped out. He hadn't thought there were any left. And yet, here was this need to impress his awesome Uncle and make his Uncle proud. And it was stupid. And Wally hated it.

Len's voice sounded from the kitchen, "Come in here, Wally."

For a moment – one stretched out to eternity, Wally considered walking into that kitchen. He considered seeing his family's reactions. They would probably be happy, but they would probably be pitying too. His first solo mission and he goes and runs into a bunch of heroes? Not good. And they'd probably fuss at him and tell him that he needed to up his training and that he should make his debut soon so the hero world started to get a sense of who he is. They'd tell him that they would always help him and save him and be there for him and it would be beautiful. It would be exactly what Wally needed. People who genuinely cared for him would take the time to comfort him and help him work through problems.

Then a memory of a snarled word –  _monster_  – flashed through Wally's head and he knew he couldn't go in there with the Rogues. He didn't deserve it. They were perfect – too perfect for him. He was a monster and a liar and a horrible person and not even a human being and he didn't even know what he was doing with his life and they shouldn't have to comfort him.

Mind – they'd be furious when he eventually got home, but somehow that only made the idea seem better to Wally. He deserved them being mad at him. He deserved all of it. He deserved to be kicked out and hated and for some reason this group wasn't doing that and they should and –

And Wally needed to get out of there. He called out as he turned on his heel and walked towards the door, "I'm going for a run!" He at least took the time to drop off his comm as he ran. He didn't want them tracking him. They wouldn't be able to catch up to him, but he didn't want to try to guess what they'd do. There were panicked shouts (and angry ones) as he tore out the door, but he'd already made his decision and he wasn't going back on it now. He was halfway across the state before any of the Rogues would have been able to make it to the front door.

It took him about three minutes to realize that he had literally zero clue where he was going. His aimless running was helping with his problems, but there was a good chance that he was completely lost. Plus, he'd already been tired out from carrying those boxes back and forth earlier. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.

Images of Kaldur left on a small island right along the equator line surrounded by chemically induced fire flashed through Wally's mind unbidden. This was the right decision.

His determination was strengthened, but that really didn't help him any. Determination didn't get you anywhere. You needed a clear-cut goal for that determination. Shrugging his shoulders and deciding on a random direction, Wally figured that he really didn't care. If he got lost… well, he could run really fast. It wouldn't take him long to find somewhere he recognized.

When Wally finally finished racing around the world, he was pleased to note that he knew where he was. That sense of pride dimmed a little when he remembered that it was Digger who had taught him that this isolated country in South Asia was surrounded by mountains and called Bhutran.

For one of the first times in Wally's life, he was out of breath and tired enough that he felt like he would never be able to run again. A quick glance at the built in watch protected by a hard cover told him that he'd been running for a good part of three hours now. The Rogues must be beside themselves at this point.

Tired and a little done with everything, Wally found a wall and slid down it, wrapping his arms around himself. He wished there was someone else to wrap their arms around him. He also wished that no one had the misfortune of being close enough to him to wrap their arms around him in comfort. He didn't know what he wanted. He didn't know what he didn't want.

Maybe he knew a little. He knew that he wanted to help people and he knew that he wanted a family. That was it. He'd had a sucky life for fifteen years. Wasn't it okay for him to ask for those two things? Everyone else got to have things like that all the time. Why couldn't he? Wally laughed bitterly to himself. Somehow all he ever did was sit and complain about his lot in life. He was pathetic. He didn't deserve those things. He'd already gotten more than he deserved.

He was a freak and a monster and unredeemable and somehow he was still given a home and people who cared about him. That was more than enough. He didn't need to get everything he wanted. This was better than living alone on the streets trying to survive off of not enough food and too many sleepless nights trying to make sure that no one shanked him in his sleep. This was better. This was good enough. This was perfect. Wally would take what he had and be thankful for it. Wishing for more was stupid and presumptuous of him. If there was anything out there looking out for the people of this world, then Wally had already gotten more than enough from the being. No point in wasting his time pretending that he could be completely happy for once in his pitiful existence.

Wally couldn't help the tears that welled in his eyes. Did he even care anymore?

And then there was a voice just in front of him, "You look a little down in the dumps over there." Flash. Of course. Because Wally's pity party wouldn't be complete without the person he hated the most coming to bother him.

Flash slid down the wall next to him and said, "You shouldn't have taken Kaldur like that."

"Who else would you have had me take?" Wally asked, voice wrecked. He didn't care that anyone who heard him would be able to guess that he was on the verge of tears. He didn't care about anything.

The was a frown in Flash's voice when he answered, "You didn't have to take anyone."

"And just let you capture me? No thanks." Wally snorted bitterly, huddling further into himself. He wasn't sure if he was trying for comfort or if he was trying to get farther away from the man next to him.

His Uncle Barry asked gently, "Are you okay, Momentum?"

And that was too much. Wally was emotionally stretched out and hanging on by a thread and that snapped it. He wanted to ask if Kaldur was okay. He wanted to tell the Flash to leave him alone. He wanted… he wanted… He didn't know! Practically growling it out, Wally shouted, "Why do you care? Haven't I made it clear that I  _don't want you here_? That I don't want you anywhere near me? I'm a  _villain_! I steal things and use people as hostages! Why do you  _care_?" He had whipped to his feet at one point and stood to point accusingly at Flash who was still on the ground, waiting for Wally to get it all out.

Flash started talking as soon as Wally stopped, "We speedsters need to-,"

"No!" Wally interrupted, "No! That's not good enough! Do you do this with Zoom or Reverse Flash? I don't think so. It's not because we're both speedsters! Why do you  _care_ , Flash?"

This time, Flash stood too, something serious and determined in the slant of his mouth and the clench of his jaw, "You want the truth? The truth is, you remind me of someone I failed! I had a nephew who trusted me and looked up to me and he was my world. And then I failed him. His father was a no good drunk. He beat the kid too. We couldn't prove it, so there was nothing we could do. Then he went to rehab. My wife and I stayed up to date with his progress. He really looked like he was improving. He did a complete 180. I thought everything was okay, but I wasn't willing to give my nephew back yet. I couldn't afford to keep him though. We didn't have the resources to keep looking after him. My wife and I thought that if we gave him back to his father and checked up on him regularly, everything would be fine. Then his dad took him back and we never saw him again. Every time we weren't buried with something – be it mundane or world saving – the dad always said that there was something going on and we couldn't see the kid. There was always something going on. He sent us pictures, though, of him. And the dad sent us emails talking about how well he was doing at school and all the awards he got. When we tried going to his house for a surprise visit, though, he was in the hospital. He'd been in a serious accident. Struck by lightning if you can believe it. We saw him at the hospital. We came every weekend. And then something came up. I was on a Justice League mission to space for two weeks and my wife was in another country for her job for a couple weeks. In the time, he woke up and disappeared. It's been years and we have yet to see him. The chances that he's alive… His father disappeared too."

Flash took a deep breath, obviously still broken up about that. Wally held his own breath. Hearing his uncle talk about him like that… Wally wasn't sure what to think about that. He hadn't known that they'd come to the hospital to visit him. He hadn't known that they'd called and tried to visit him. He hadn't known any of it. Flash kept going, looking at Wally mask to mask, "You ask why I care even though you obviously hate me. I care because you remind me of my nephew and I won't fail someone else. I just want to help you. I'll keep pushing until you let me in. I won't stop until I feel like I've helped you. You're obviously upset. You're obviously hurt. Let me help."

For a long moment, the two just stared at each other. Wally couldn't even begin to guess at the thoughts running through the man's head. There was the strongest urge telling him to just reveal himself. Wally cleared his throat and said, "Thanks for, uh, telling me. I'm… sorry about your nephew, um, disappearing. I…" Flash looked at him expectantly and Wally slid down onto the wall he'd been leaning against before, huddling back into his original position. He finished with, "I still don't trust you. I don't… I don't know what to think about you right now. I just… I don't know."

Flash slid down the wall next to him, wearing a thoughtful frown. Suddenly, he said, "Why don't we go for a run?"

"A run?" Wally asked curiously. On the one hand, his legs burned after all the energy he'd consumed already running. On the other hand, there was always an itch under his skin begging him to just  _run_.

"Yeah, a run. I've got some extra Light Bars in here that you can take to get some energy back – you look exhausted. And then we can just run and run until we get tired. Have you ever run with someone before? I mean, really run; not just having me following you around while you run." Flash said, obviously getting excited.

Wally allowed a small smile to curl the edges of his lips, "No, I haven't. Never found someone fast enough."

Flash beamed at him and Wally realized that this was the first time he'd smiled in front of his Uncle since he'd become Momentum. Flash laughed, "Well you've got someone fast enough now. Catch." He tossed Wally three protein packed bars and watched him eat them quickly before quirking another smile and asking, "Ready to go?"

Wally searched his Uncle's face one more time before smiling that small smile again, "Yeah, I'm ready." They were gone within the picosecond.


	12. The Light

WWWWWW

Momentum and Flash finally pulled to a stop hours later. Both of them were panting, hands on their knees, crouched over slightly. Wally rolled his shoulders and popped his back, listening to the truly satisfying crackling sounds. Barry grinned childishly at him and popped his own back, his grin growing larger when he realized that his back popping was louder. Wally rolled his eyes beneath the mask. Honestly. People would think he was the adult here.

"Wasn't that fun?" Flash asked, lips twisted up in a smile that only really came from exhausting yourself doing something you enjoyed.

"Sure, I guess so." Wally shrugged. There was a little smirk pulling at the edges of his own lips. It was impossible to not enjoy himself when he was running. Running was all he had. Running was all he was. And the Flash had been right – it was fun running with someone else. It had been almost reminiscent of when Wally was living with his Uncle Barry and they did experiments in the garden shed out back.

The Flash's smile slipped a little bit, but his voice was still upbeat and kind when he asked, "Feeling any better?"

Wally pulled a lip in between his teeth and chewed on it gently, "Are you asking if I trust you anymore?"

"No. That can wait until later. You were obviously upset earlier. Did running help?" Barry asked. He took a step closer and Wally thought the man was going to put his hand on Wally's shoulder, but after a searching look at Wally's face, Barry decided to drop the hand and go lean on a tree next to the red haired speedster instead.

"Yeah." Wally answered, purposefully vague. He still didn't trust Barry. He didn't  _dis_ trust him either, but… he didn't know. He needed some time to think about Barry where he wasn't actually spending it with Barry. The younger speedster wasn't comfortable telling the people he called family about his problems – he wasn't going to list off all his troubles to this man who had essentially become a stranger over the years.

Then again, the easy solution would be to just tell the older speedster who he was. It would only take a few words. Well, it wasn't quite that simple. The fallout from that announcement would be  _epic_ in proportions. Uncle Barry would double his efforts to bond with Wally and there was a good chance he would, like, quadruple his efforts to get Wally to join the good side. There was also a good chance that the Rogues would end up finding out that Wally was the Flash's nephew. He couldn't even imagine what would become of that. Especially if they found out that he'd  _known_  who the Flash was. That would be really, really bad.

Unfortunately, thoughts of the Rogues' reactions to a reveal turned his thoughts to his family and the reasons he'd run in the first place. When he ran, all of his problems melted away. When he stopped, they caught up to him again. Running was a temporary solution. That was a lesson that Wally had learned the hard way too many times over.

Now, all of his problems were washing over him again, physically weighing him down. It felt like he was stuck between two concrete walls that were slowly pushing in towards each other. His chest felt as if there was a literal weight on it and a headache starting pulsing angrily at his temples. Wally still felt like he made the right decision, especially since he learned all of that about Uncle Barry when he ran. The problem was, the Rogues weren't likely to see it the same way. The Rogues were likely to be furious with him. This wasn't like the first time he ran. The first time he ran, he'd only been a Rogue for about a week and he'd messed up bad on a mission and he wasn't ready to trust his family at all.

That had all changed by this point. He trusted his family.

Unbidden, Roy's words about no one really knowing who he was flashed to the forefront of his mind. Could he really say he trusted his family when he kept so much from them? He was just thinking about how bad it would be if he told them who he really was. Shouldn't he trust them to take it well enough and allow him a chance to explain? Shouldn't he trust them enough to care about him?

In the end, though, it didn't matter how much Wally trusted the Rogues. They weren't the problem. He was the one that was causing the problems. He was so firmly convinced that he didn't  _deserve_ their care and their understanding. And he projected that self-hatred onto his family. The way he thought about himself was what he automatically assumed the Rogues would think about him. It hurt him to think that they might hate him, but it was all he was used to. It was the only thing he'd ever experienced. It was what he'd learned to expect.

Except when he was running. When Wally was running, he didn't feel so bad about himself. Maybe it was the fact that time didn't really affect him when he was running. He was going so fast that everything else slowed down around him, sometimes even stopping. There was an entirely separate world that could only be accessed by speedsters and something about that made him feel special and  _worthy_. He supposed that was partially the Speed Force. That power that thrummed through his veins always seemed to whisper some sense of possessiveness. Like Wally belonged to it. Like the Speed Force had chosen Wally and cared for him enough to fight for him. The Speed Force was always urging him to run and helping him escape and it was the only constant he'd had since being struck by lightning.

After a beat, Wally realized that he'd been sitting in silence for too long. When he was talking with normal people, he could go through all sorts of inner contemplation before the other person got around to talking again. The problem was that Uncle Barry wasn't a normal person. The Flash was speedster like him and he'd experienced the same amount of passing time as Wally. Yet, he'd stayed silent and waited for Wally to get through his thoughts. For all that Wally called him a child and thought he was immature, Barry truly was a mature person who was always looking for ways to help people. People didn't understand that life got so boring when it lasted as long as it did for speedsters. People didn't understand that the speedsters had to crack jokes and make puns to relieve some of that boredom.

Voice forcibly casual, Wally said, "I should probably head home. The rest of the Rogues are probably freaking out right about now. How is it that you always seem to be able to find me, but they can't?"

"I can check a lot more places in a lot less time, kiddo." Barry said with a smile. The smile dimmed slightly before he continued, "If you don't want to go back to them yet, I can find a place for you to stay."

This conversation was getting way too serious for Wally's tastes. He ignored the fact that it had gone past way too serious a long time ago, "No thanks. Jail cells aren't really my style." Barry laughed outright at that and sent him another blinding grin. Wally shuffled a little bit before saying hesitantly, "Thanks, by the way. For running with me." He saw Barry open his mouth to answer, but he didn't stick around to find out what he'd say. He was gone before Flash could get the first word out.

Wally didn't go home. He should have. He definitely should have gone home. The Rogues were going to be furious with him and they were probably worrying and no one deserved to have to worry about him. He couldn't do it, though. Tonight was the night that he and Roy were going to catch Onomatopoeia and if he went back to the safe house, there was no way that the Rogues would let him out of their sight long enough for him to sneak back out later. At least, that was the excuse he gave himself as he ran towards a warehouse in Star City.

RRRRRR

When Roy got to his warehouse at about ten at night, he hadn't been expecting his criminal informant, Wally, to already be there. The ginger speedster was living up to his name too, practicing with the bow and arrow. Roy was impressed to see that the speedster apparently remembered a good bit of his lessons. He wasn't doing much better with the actual shooting part, but he was still holding the bow correctly and was treating the weapon with the respect it deserved. Instead of voicing that pride, though, he focused on something else, "I'm pretty sure it's called breaking and entering when you go onto someone's property without their permission."

Wally's voice was deceptively light when he answered, "I'm pretty sure I didn't actually break anything."

"What are you doing here this early, Wally?" Roy asked flatly.

He wasn't expecting Wally to wince before snapping, "Don't call me that. I'm Momentum. Or, I guess, Arrow in this getup. I told you my name, but that doesn't mean that I want you using it all the time."

Roy's eyebrows furrowed as he raised his arms in supplication, "Sorry. Didn't mean to set you off."

There was a pause before Wally spoke again, voice tight and grip flexing on the string of the bow, "Is Kaldur alright?"

"What?" Roy asked, sure he hadn't heard correctly. He hadn't expected Wally to bring this up. Robin had already told him about the confrontation with Momentum in Gorilla City, but he hadn't really processed it yet. He was still trying to force himself to remember that Wally was, in fact, a supervillain and him hurting heroes wasn't really all that much of a stretch. It was  _more_  normal for him to hurt heroes than help them like he was doing.

There was a scowl in Wally's voice when he repeated, "Is Kaldur alright? Flash found him before the fire could get to him, right?"

"Yeah…" Roy answered slowly, "I mean, his feet were a little singed and the smoke and lack of water was starting to get to him, but he's alright. No thanks to you."

Wally's back stiffened with the accusation, "I had to get out of there."

"And there wasn't any other way to do it than kidnap and hero and hurt them?" Roy frowned back. He really hadn't wanted to get into this conversation. There was a good chance he'd let his temper get the best of him and he'd say something stupid. He always did. In an attempt to calm himself down, Roy grabbed his own bow and arrow set and started aiming at a different target.

There was a definitely frown in Wally's voice when he responded, "No, there wasn't. I did the only thing I could think of."

"Being captured isn't all that bad. You'd have gotten out eventually. The Rogues never let their own stay in prison for long." Roy told him casually, arrows thunking into the target.

"Being captured wouldn't have gotten the crates delivered to my employer." Wally threw back.

"Who were you delivering for? What were you delivering?" Roy questioned, watching as the arrows on his target started forming a picture of an apple. He was bored of just hitting the bullseye repeatedly.

This time, Wally actually turned to the side to scowl at Roy, "We agreed when we started this that I wouldn't tell you anything that had to do with my family."

"This has to do with  _my_  family. You could have seriously hurt Kaldur. I may not be a member of that junior league, but I do care about them. That means that I need to know what was going on." Roy tried to state it nonchalantly, but his voice started raising as he went further on, getting louder and deepening into a growl at the same time.

Wally matched the sound in kind, growl-shouting at Roy, "They weren't supposed to be there! This has  _nothing_  to do with you! This wasn't some big plan to get on the bad side of the teen heroes club or whatever! This was a simple job done for someone who has a deal going with the Rogues. That's it. There was nothing special or fancy about it. You don't need to know anything else."

Roy took a deep breath, trying to center himself and calm down like Black Canary tried so hard to teach him. He closed his eyes, continuing to shoot the bow, trusting his muscle memory and instinctive shooting skills to hit the target. When he felt sufficiently calmed, he talked again, "Wally." He ignored the flinch that the name elicited, forging on, "This wasn't some simple job. This job had something to do with the Light. That means that there's something world-ending going on with it."

There was a pause and Roy thought he was finally getting through to the kid before -, "I've never heard of the Light before. They must not be that important." Wally's voice was icier than ever before. There was something in his tone that made Roy felt like he had just stepped over some sort of line and there was no way back.

"Maybe they're too important – over your new little head kind of thing." Roy suggested lightly back. He wanted to diffuse the situation as soon as possible. Wally had sounded almost… angry. And angry speedsters were terrifying. Roy had never personally witnessed a fight between Flash and his speedster villains, but he'd seen Flash angry when Robin was kidnapped by Grodd in the kid's earlier years. That moment definitely ranked up there on Roy's top terrifying moments list. And Wally may not be as fast as Barry or as experienced, but he was still a speedster and pretty freaking fast in his own right. He also seemed to bottle up a lot more rage than Barry ever did. Barry was always popping out jokes and puns and blinding smiles to deal with all the negative emotion he might come across, but Wally took all the negative emotions he felt and built up a wall around him. Someday, something bad enough was going to happen that the wall would come crashing down. Roy did not want that day to be today.

His attempt to relax the situation helped a little bit because Wally snorted a little bit and the two continued shooting in relative silence, the only conversation being Roy correcting Wally on stance or technique. After a while longer of shooting, Wally broached the topic again, significantly less icy this time, "What is the Light?"

Casting a glance at his criminal informant, Roy said calmly, "It's an organization of supervillains – big ones who've been in the business for a while – who have some sort of big plan that they've been working on. We've only recently heard of them. We're still trying to figure out who all they're made of and what their end goal is." He hesitated before probing gently, "Any information we could get would be a huge help."

Wally's eyes flitted to him for the briefest of seconds before turning back to the target, methodically shooting the arrows in the quiver and retrieving them, sharpening them if needed. The redhead sighed, "The job I pulled… it's…" The speedster closed his eyes and took in a pained breath, "I feel like I'm betraying them." His voice was small – smaller than Roy had ever heard it.

Roy felt like a jerk for pushing this, but he needed the info, "You're not betraying them. You're helping to keep the world safe, Wa-, er, Arrow."

There was that pained breath and that small voice again, "Do you promise me that the Rogues won't be affected by this?"

The archer's brow crinkled and he admitted reluctantly, "I can't promise you that. The only thing I can promise you is that I will do as much as I can to make sure they won't be affected. I can't promise that they won't be."

There was another long pause and then, "The job was for Gorilla Grodd." Alright, that was stuff that Roy had already gotten from the Team. He knew that the crates contained 'advanced research' and the Light were the ones who gave it to the gorillas, but that was all he knew. He'd wanted to start Wally off with something easier to answer.

"What were in the crates?" Roy asked, voice still forcibly unaffected.

Yet another long pause and, finally, Wally started talking, "I wasn't supposed to look in the crates. I was just supposed to grab them and get straight back to Grodd, but… I knew that the heroes weren't going to be coming after me anytime soon and I'd be able to explain my lateness away with the commotion and the fact that I had to carry two at a time that round. So, I, uh, I looked in the crates. It was a lot of research, a lot of runes and stuff. It looked to me like someone was trying to translate magic into science. Grodd obviously doesn't use magic, so he probably wanted this research to be able to use whatever this spell or whatever was."

"Why didn't they just deliver the… research straight to Grodd? Why go through Gorilla City?" Roy mused, not actually expecting an answer.

"I don't know for sure, but… I think that maybe Grodd requested the spell to go to Gorilla City and then have the gorillas there finish the translation from magic to science themselves as a way to test his followers. I mean, he obviously wants the other talking gorillas to follow him, so he needs to know who he can trust when the time comes. He's got an engraved block of wood that identifies people as being with him. That's how the guards knew that I was there for work for him. I think he was just testing them." Wally threw back, obviously having thought this out.

Roy gave Wally a side glance, but the younger ginger was focusing on his archery. Quickly suppressing a small smile, Roy said, "Sucks that you hadn't managed to take a picture of either of those. That could have been seriously helpful."

_Finally_ , a small smirk played across Wally's lips and he bragged, "I've got a pretty good memory. As in, I memorized quite a bit of the sheets of research in the two crates I looked through and I still remember the wood identification thing."

Giving him an incredulous look, Roy huffed out a laugh, "Well, what do you know? You're useful after all. Why don't you go ahead and start transferring the stuff down? I'll see what the League thinks about it." Wally stuck his tongue out at him, but quickly complied.

A while later, a blaring alarm killed the good mood that had finally settled over the two of them. Arrow jumped, super speed adding a little boost to his jump so he actually made it a couple feet in the air. He hissed out, "What was  _that_?"

Roy rolled his eyes, "That was the alarm I set to make sure that we didn't lose track of time. We've got about a half an hour to get this place to look presentable and non-superhero-ey for our visiting murderer."

Wally frowned at the reminder of the reason he was here, but started to diligently put away the bow and arrow and target, "What's the plan again?"

"He'll show up here at midnight. You'll be waiting in the middle of the room, fidgeting as usual – that wasn't an insult, don't get so huffy! – and waiting for him to show up. Once he enters the room, start regaling him with your woes of being a poor little criminal who can't get any work done with a non-powered vigilante dogging all your steps. Distract him with talk about pay or something or with a sob story – whatever, I don't care. Keep him there for fifteen minutes and then I'll make my debut. Yell something about how this place was supposed to be safe and then bolt. Criminals don't have honor among thieves, so it's definitely legitimate that you'd leave him in the dust." Roy answered.

Wally tilted his head to the side, "I'm not sure if I should be offended by that criminal comment or not."

Roy threw back, "I'm not sure you're criminal enough to be insulted by any derogatory criminal comment." That shut Wally up, but that hadn't been what Roy was aiming for. He'd been going for joking, but somehow had ended up ruining the moment. Again. Like always. They spent the rest of the time waiting for Onomatopoeia to arrive in silence.

Finally, the clock struck midnight and Roy tensed overhead. He was crouched in the beams at the top of the warehouse, an opening in the roof behind him to show any suspicious criminals his entrance point. He would not kill his informant's career this early in the game. The clock was just striking the twelfth stroke when a man (at least, it seemed like a man) in a black body suit and tan trench coat walked in. The pattern on his mask was exactly like it had been described to Roy. This was Onomatopoeia. Roy was  _so close_.

The man spoke softly, but clearly, "You have a vigilante problem?"

Wally's tensed shoulders relaxed obviously and a smug smirk overtook his features, "Honestly, dude, I totally thought you were going to talk in onomatopoeia's the entire time and I was a little concerned about how communication was going to work because I'm good, but I'm not that good. But now I know that you are totally willing to have normal conversations too. And yeah, I have a serious vigilante problem. Dude's trying to kill me or something! Starve me to death, at least. I haven't had a good job in forever and no criminal wants to dig too far into his reserves, am I right? So I've been pinching pockets and it's  _sucked_. It's all this jerk's fault too. Man won't leave me alone. You'd think he'd learn after the first couple of times he lost me on a chase. But nope, not happening apparently. Something's got him hooked on me and it's annoying as all get out. So, can you actually do something about that, or am I going to have to find someone else to do the job?" Roy raised his eyebrows. The kid could really keep going if he wanted to. That was Barry level of rambling. That made Roy wonder if it was a speedster thing and, if so, did Zoom and Reverse Flash (whoever they were; Flash made sure that no one else met them if he could help it), villains though they may be, do the same thing? Roy shook his head; not the right time to be thinking about that.

Onomatopoeia shifted his head to the side, giving off the impression of a bemused expression, "I can kill the vigilante. It would be easier if you would consent to being the bait though."

"Uh, no. Nope. No can do. Not going to happen. I have stayed out of prison so far. I do  _not_  want to change that streak anytime soon. No prison for this one." Arrow shot back. The lower half of his face (the only visible part) twisted into a frown.

Onomatopoeia replied, "It would be easier if you were the bait. It seems as if you don't really want the vigilante dead."

Arrow frowned again, "I want the vigilante dead. I just don't want myself dead with him. You said it would be  _easier_  if you had me as bait. That means that you can still do it without me as bait. Look, I'll increase your pay or whatever if you do the deed without involving me. That way everyone wins."

"I require no pay." Onomatopoeia stated.

Arrow laughed, actually throwing his black clad head back, "Yeah, sure man. Whatever. We can discuss rates later if you want. I've got a description of the guy or I can get a picture or something if a description doesn't work."

"I require no pay." Onomatopoeia repeated before repeating, "It would be easier if you were the bait."

Arrow's frown was deeper this time, "I thought we talked about this. We're not using me as bait. Figure it out on your own. That's what I'm hiring you for, isn't it?"

Roy's eyes narrowed as Onomatopoeia's hand twitched towards his trench coat pocket. He could have been reaching for something innocuous or he could have been reaching for a weapon that Wally would have been able to dodge anyways, but Red Arrow had just reacted at the sign of trouble. The newly solo hero was about five minutes earlier than he'd planned to be, but that didn't matter at the moment. He was determined to keep Wally out of trouble as much as he could.

And so Red Arrow dropped from the roof, already shooting out a polyurethane arrow as he tumbled into a roll, coming up straight with his bow held out in preparation, a taser arrow in his hand. He heard Wally curse behind him, growling out a quick, "This was supposed to be a safe location! He's never found me here before!" And then the speedster was racing out of the room, leaving the struggling villain to fend for himself. Roy grinned to himself. Everything was going according to plan (disregarding the creepy noises Onomatopoeia kept making). Of course, that was when everything went wrong.

Instead of continuing to try to escape the quickly hardening foam, Onomatopoeia burrowed further into it. There were muffled pops (from the gun and from the wielder of said gun) and then the foam was cracking on one side – it had already hardened and Onomatopoeia had taken advantage of that fact, shooting a hole in the side with his gun before everything else froze around him. Growling, Roy rapidly changed out his arrow, going for a blunt headed one. He aimed and fired within a second, easily knocking the gun out of Onomatopoeia's hands (" _Clack_ ," the murdered said). Grinning to himself, Red Arrow stalked forward, prepping his taser arrow again. He didn't get a chance to shoot it before he had to throw himself to the side, Onomatopoeia's knife slicing through the air next to his head (" _Swish_ ," the villain commented). A second earlier and it would have been slicing  _into_  his head.

Red Arrow took a steadying breath. He couldn't let himself get too excited. He needed to keep a clear head for this. There wasn't anyone to back him up anymore, so he needed to be constantly vigilant when he fought people now. There would be no one to clean up his messes. Preparing again, Red Arrow rolled to the side and shot off another blunt tipped arrow, knocking the second knife from Onomatopoeia's right hand (" _Thwack_ ," Onomatopoeia said with a wince). Onomatopoeia easily grabbed the knife out of the air with his left hand. Because of course he was ambidextrous. Because why not?

Growling out a sigh, Red Arrow shot forward and swung his bow at the knife, dodging another knife (how did he pull these out of his trench coat so fast?). He didn't have enough time to back up enough to get room for a shot, but he was decent at hand to hand. He still had a chance. Red Arrow blocked a shot at his ribs, twirling out of the way and landing a punch on the side of Onomatopoeia's neck, causing his left side to twitch and spasm in pain for a moment. Using his advantage, Roy gripped both of the knives and ripped them away, tossing them to the side and backing up a few steps to shoot a sharp tipped arrow through the flap of the trench coat. The arrow went partially through the material, dragging the man wearing it with the arrow for a few moments before lodging into the warehouse wall. Onomatopoeia growled, " _Chshhhh_." Following the word, he ripped his trench coat in half to get away from the wall. A good portion of his knives were left behind. Red Arrow grinned victoriously.

From there, it wasn't that hard to  _finally_  use his taser arrow, dropping the villain and cuffing him. He smacked the murderer upside the head once more for good measure (it might have also been because he'd known those vigilantes and they hadn't deserved to die) and finally shoved the villain away from him. He'd take the man to the police station or something in a little bit. He just needed to catch his breath for a moment.

Suddenly, there was slow, sarcastic clapping from behind him. Roy whipped around to see Wally standing there, grinning. Wally said, "For a moment there, I totally thought he was going to win. I was definitely rooting for you, though."

Roy splattered himself onto the ground, letting his head rest against the concrete floor and kind of wishing for a couch, "Glad to know you care so much. And I was winning the entire time."

"He almost gutted you." Wally announced cheerfully.

Roy groaned, "Why are you still here?"

"I still needed to get my normal outfit and leave this one here. Don't worry, I made sure that no one was following me." Wally answered, settling onto the ground next to Roy.

Said archer squinted up at Wally, "… Aren't you going to get your stuff?"

Wally's forehead pinched together and his mouth twisted into a frown, "Yeah… I guess so."

Roy shifted and offered awkwardly, "You can stay here for a while, you know. I've probably got something edible in the fridge over there and there's arrows to clean if you want. I've got to get this guy over to the police, but you're welcome to stay without me."

For a moment, Roy thought that Wally was actually going to accept his offer, but then the other man's shoulders slumped and he said, "Nah, I should probably get back to the Rogues. They're already mad that I left the house earlier. No need to add more fuel to the fire by staying even later."

The archer reached out a hand for Wally to pull him up, brushing off a little bit of dust and dirt when he stood, "You're… you're still happy with them, right?"

Wally rolled his eyes, "Yes,  _mother_."

"Hey! I was trying to be a good person!" Roy growled.

"Oh… that's what you were trying. It's such a rare occurrence with you that I couldn't tell what it was!" Wally joked.

Roy rolled his eyes, "Get out of here, you. I'll text you when I've got another assignment, okay?" Wally nodded firmly and disappeared in a flurry of colors and flying clothes and lightning.

Speedsters. Always such a flair for the dramatic. Roy snorted again and then looked down. He kicked lightly at the sleeping murderer. He'd done it. He'd completed his first solo mission! Now, how was he going to get this dead weight grown man to the police station?

LLLLLL

Lex Luthor leaned back in his chair, point delivered. He could see his fellow conspirators mulling over his proposition. It was infinitely easy for him to identify which of the villains would be the hardest to convince and which ones were already convinced to go with his idea. Ra's al Ghul was the most vocally against Luthor's idea, "It will not work. They are not equipped to handle what it is you require of them."

Queen Bee leaned forward, giving off ample view of her cleavage. Luthor subtly raised an eyebrow in disgust. Queen Bee spoke, "Even if they were able to handle it, they wouldn't agree with the plan. I believe that they are content where they are. Especially if the rumors are true."

The previously disinterested Vandal Savage flicked his eyes towards the group, but Klarion perked up and started talking over him, "Rumors! I love rumors! What kind of rumors are these?" Luthor noticed the brief shadow of anger that settled over Savage's face, but the behemoth of an immortal didn't act on that anger. The bald man felt his lips twitch up into a momentary smile. He could already see the group fraying at the edges. How interesting.

The lush voice of Queen Bee drew his attention back into the conversation at hand, "There's rumors that a young speedster has joined their ranks."

The Brain beeped at the assembled group, "There have been no reports of an adolescent metahuman gifted with speed."

"None that you have been able to find." Queen Bee smirked. She shrugged lightly, "I myself heard of him only recently. He's been making his way up in the criminal underworld, but no one knows a thing about him. He was recently employed by Grodd when we used the gorilla."

Savage shifted, drawing the attention of the group, "And how has that particular mission gone over?"

Klarion pouted, "The stupid monkey said that he was the smartest of them all and that his little followers could do it, but they couldn't. Stupid." Savage sent the Lord of Chaos an irritated glare before Klarion rolled his eyes dramatically and elaborated, "Grumbling Grodd and his stupid loser followers managed to translate the spells into an equal scientific procedure but when they tried to do it, it didn't work. He wasn't very happy." An unsettling sort of glee settled over Klarion's face at the thought.

Luthor couldn't help but poke the sleeping bear – just a bit, "So, what you're saying is that the science was correct, but the magic was not? The magic spell that you designed?" The growl that he got in return was endlessly entertaining, but Luthor had a persona to maintain here and he was not willing to break it so he could laugh at a co-conspirator.

Ra's al Ghul sighed, "We shall just get back to our research. We will succeed soon enough. Now that at least one problem is settled, shall we go back to Luthor's proposal of using that team for future moments of the plan?"

There was another breath of silence. Queen Bee broke it, "Why do we even need them anyways? We have a plan."

"And that plan is going so well, isn't it? The new Young Justice League has been thwarting us at every turn." Luthor raised a hand, forestalling the exclamations of anger, "I know that we do not want to admit to it, but I think that it is time we should. The Young Justice League is going to ruin our plans if we do not do something, and fast. I believe that adding a new enemy team into the fray is the perfect way to counteract the team of mini heroes. As for their willingness to join, well. I'm sure we'll find  _something_  to convince them." Luthor allowed his lips to curl up into a cruel smile, eyes adding to the image. Around him, the others were nodding their heads and verbally assenting to the plan. Luthor added, "I will head the mission to get them to join. If I need assistance, I will come to one of you immediately."

Savage nodded gravely, sealing the decision, "I want the Rogues within the month."

WWWWWW

This time when Wally slunk into the vacation house, he forced himself to move immediately into the kitchen where he could still hear the Rogues gathered. He would not give himself time to convince himself to leave again. In the moments it took him to walk normal speed into the kitchen, he'd worn his lip bloody and could feel the skin there trying to stitch itself back together again. Fantastic. All he needed was for it to look like he'd been in a fight or something. He was so pathetic.

The moment he entered through the door, he was practically engulfed by a cloud of multicolored cloth. Wally stumbled under James's assault, wrapping an arm around the teen's waist as he tried to keep his balance. James had his head buried in the crook of Wally's neck, hiccupping little sobs out and digging his fingers into Wally's back as if trying to make sure that Wally wouldn't ever be able to leave again. Blinking furiously under the assault of emotion, Wally gently carded his fingers through James's hair, shushing him gently so he'd calm down and detangle himself from the mess of limbs he'd created.

James did calm down after a few seconds, but he never detached himself. So Wally had to awkwardly peel James's octopus limbs off of him and settle the teen in his usual spot at the dinner table. Through the whole ordeal, no one had said a single thing, but Wally had felt their eyes on him the entire time. Feeling jittery and more than a little thrown off by the lack of speaking, Wally settled him spot at the dinner table. His leg twitched and blurred with his nerves, gently thumping up and down at a speed almost too fast for the human eye to see.

Hartley placed a gentle hand on Wally's knee, speaking quietly, "Do you need me to ask them to leave?" Wally smiled a little bit and shook his head no. Hartley had been using their secret code that they'd developed after the first week living together. Wally didn't have the courage to look up at the other Rogues at the moment, but he'd figure that they were wearing their 'not-amused' faces. It was the expression they always wore when Hartley and Wally started speaking in code. The two of them had been trying to teach James, but that was still a work in progress. Honestly, that code had been one of the best things to happen to Wally. It wasn't so much that he wanted to keep things that he and Hartley kept a secret. It was more that he'd always told himself that he'd make a friend and make a code with them and now,  _finally_ , it had happened. And it was beautiful.

Mick grunted, "You two done whispering nonsense like little school girls?" Wally opened his mouth, a sarcastic response on the tip of his tongue, but Mick knew him too well and silenced him with a glare. Wally wilted a little in his seat and offered up a sheepish grin in response. Mick rolled his eyes and lumbered into the kitchen proper, grabbing two plates piled with food. He brought them over to Wally and dropped them in front of him, grunting again and gesturing at the plates. It didn't take Wally any more prompting to dig into the dishes in front of him. Sure, the Light Bar had been great and all that, but he was still exhausted and his stomach was actually trying to eat itself.

Len finally spoke, voice that slow, slick drawl that simultaneously annoyed and soothed Wally, "You're going to eat and we're going to talk. Don't bother trying to talk because we'll just talk over you. Got it? Nod if you do." He paused, waiting for Wally to nod, and then continued, "Good. We're not mad. We're not disappointed. We're not even irritated. We've had time to talk this over and we've come to realize that your response was perfectly natural and we shouldn't penalize you for it. You've been on the streets for a while now and you're happy here. You felt like you failed. You didn't want to face us after that." He paused again, giving Wally a significant look. Even if the speedster had wanted to talk, he couldn't have. Len kept going, "You did  _not_ fail. You completed the mission successfully. You had to make some hard decisions that you're likely regretting right now. Don't. Do not regret your decisions. Ever. It's the only way you'll get through a life as a criminal. If you let past decisions mess up your head so bad that you can't handle current decisions, then you're dead. So don't regret. Just learn from your mistakes." He pulled to a stop, keeping his icy eyes trained on Wally the whole time.

Mark picked up for their leader, "Now, keep in mind that we don't think that you made any mistakes. You did everything  _perfectly_. I can't imagine how any of us would have done anything different. But, what you did was probably hard. You're probably worried that it was too hard. You're probably worried that we won't keep accepting you if you can't kidnap heroes. Look, I'll tell you right now. I still have a hard time kidnapping people even if it means my only escape. Kidnapping them like that will probably scar them for life and it's hard knowing that you're the cause of that. But it's necessary. And it does become easier. Knowing that your family's well-being is on the line with decisions have a good way of making sure that there are no regrets after the decision was made. You might want to protest that our well-being wasn't on the line with your decision to kidnap Aqua-freak, but you're wrong. Having our youngest, newest member in jail will mess us up and send us into an honest to god panic and that's no way for us to keep going. We'll get into more arguments and you'll end up in there longer than planned because we can't work together and we'll all blame each other and it'll be a mess. Trust me, we've been through this before the first time Hartley was taken to Belle Reeve." He had kept his eyes on Wally's the whole time, too, and Wally felt a lump growing in his throat.

Digger threw in his two-cents after that, "That don't mean that what ya did was a good thing, ankle biter. Ya just kidnapped a person. That's not a good thing to do. But ya're a criminal now and that's what we do. Guess what? We all ran inta that same problem when we were starting out. We all know how it feels. So come ta one of us when ya're freaked out about something like that. Don't go running off. We get that ya're a free spirit and all that junk, but don't give us a heart attack like that. Got it?" Wally nodded, the lump still stuck in his throat and tears prickling the edges of his eyes to boot. Fantastic.

Sam finished the little presentation with, "You're part of the family now, kid. We're a messed up, dysfunctional, barely holding it together, illegal, criminal group that can somehow still call itself a family and we want you here. We couldn't imagine you anywhere else. Okay?" Wally took another deep breath and nodded again.

Len gazed at him near emotionlessly, "Have we covered everything you were upset about when you ran?" Wally started to nod. Len interrupted it with a bored, "The truth, Wally."

Wally shook his head. The group waited for him to go on. He thought to himself that this was the perfect opportunity. This was the best opening he was going to get to come completely clean. He could say it all now and work it out with the group. They'd just said all of that, so surely that meant that they'd be able to work it out. They would listen. He was sure of it. He could just say it: he's the Flash's nephew, he's now a criminal informant, his life kind of sucked and he was damaged in ways that they wouldn't know how to deal with. He could tell them everything.

A ringing phone interrupted his thoughts. Len made no move to get it, so Wally jerkily stood. Len lightly, carefully, grabbed the ginger's wrist, saying, "That can wait."

Wally shook his head, "It might be important. Besides, I need a moment to get this all together in my head." He was going to do it. He was finally going to tell his family everything. He'd get his thoughts all arranged while Len took the call and then Len and the rest would look to him to explain and he'd forget everything he'd just planned and instead he'd blurt everything out. It would be okay. It was going to be okay.

Len listened on the phone with a blank expression. After a few long moments, he put the speaker part of the phone against his chest, muffling any sounds of them talking. There was the barest hint of irritation when he spoke, "We've got a job. They need it done now or they'd find someone else to do it. It's that group – MAZE. They want us to grab some sort of sword in Central and deliver it. Apparently their men backed out on them last minute and they need someone to make the grab, but the sword is only in transit for a certain amount of time. It's a high-risk mission."

Before the others got a chance to say anything, Wally spoke up, "You guys should take the job. It shouldn't take that long – I can run you down and you can call me to run you back up again when you're done. I'll still be ready to tell you guys when you get back, alright?"

"You shouldn't be left alone right now." Sam started uncertainly.

"I'll be fine." Wally said, rolling his eyes.

At the same time, Hartley sniffed, "That's why we should get a pet."

Len told the group over the phone that they'd make the hit asap before he announced to the gathered Rogues, "Get suited up now. Put a comm in asap and I'll tell you guys what to do over the comms. This won't be our finest work, but we're still going to do a good job. Zoom is out of Central for the time being, so we don't have to worry about that. That does, unfortunately, mean that Flash's attention will be ours alone, so we've got to be prepared for that. Wally – stay safe. Everyone else, ready?" They nodded their affirmatives, all dressed in their respective villain suits. They'd put their comms in and had been listening to directions while getting quickly getting ready. Wally had never changed out of his suit, so he hadn't needed to do anything but move to the porch in front of the house, ready to start running people back to Central. Len was the last to go. He put a hand on Wally's shoulder and said, "Don't chicken out on us, kid." And then Wally was running them too fast for any real sort of conversation.

Exhausted again, Wally slumped back to the safe house. All the members of his team were settled down for the heist in Central and they'd call him as soon as they needed him to pick them back up again. They'd said that they'd probably end having Sam bring them to one of their safe houses and then have Wally pick them up from there so they had time for him to run back and forth.

Grabbing a handful of high everything content foods, Wally trudged upstairs to his room. He flumped onto his bed, dropping all the food next to him and sprawling out. After heaving a tired sigh, Wally pulled out his phone. At first, he accidently grabbed the wrong one. He was about to put the burner phone away, but then he saw that there were messages waiting. The first one was from Roy.

_Red Arrow (12:41am):_

_Thanks a lot for leaving me to drag the body to the police station. You totally could have run me and the body over and then left. But no. You had to make me do it._

Wally grinned to himself and tapped out a reply.

_Momentum (12:59am):_

_I thought you could use the exercise. Wasn't that thoughtful of me?_

_Red Arrow (12:59am):_

_Brat_

Wally grinned again and closed out the message thread. He saw that there were texts from Freddie too. His grin subconsciously grew wider as he read.

_Freddie (11:32pm):_

_John. I just saw the weirdest looking dog. I swear it was part demon._

_Freddie (11:32pm):_

_[MULTIMEDIA ATTACHED]_

_Is that not part demon?_

_Freddie (11:45pm):_

_Stop ignoring me. I'm bored and you're ignoring me. What kind of friend does that?_

_Freddie (11:47pm):_

_This is abuse. I know you're still awake at this time. Pay attention to me!_

_Freddie (12:01am):_

_Jjjjjjoooooooohhhhhhnnnnn…._

_Freddie (12:13am):_

_I'm going to keep doing this until you acknowledge me. And then I'm going to promptly ignore you._

_Freddie (12:34am):_

_What are you even doing? It's not like you have any other friends to be texting. Ugh. I'm bbboooorrrreeeeedddd!_

_Freddie (12:54am):_

_If you could have any type of pet, what kind would it be?_

Wally rolled his eyes before typing out a reply.

_John (1:02am):_

_I'd get a cat. How about you, loser?_

_Freddie (1:02am):_

_A python. And I'm ignoring you now. Because you were mean to me._

Wally's lips curled up into a smile when, five minutes later, his phone vibrated again. Surprise, surprise, it was Freddie.

_Freddie (1:07am):_

_I'm sorry! I won't do it again. Entertain me!_

_John (1:07am):_

_Why should I? You were being mean to me._

_Freddie (1:08am):_

_You were being mean to *me*! You were ignoring me!_

_John (1:09am):_

_I do actually have a life you know. I was hanging out with someone._

_Freddie (1:09am):_

_Sure you were. I believe you_

_John (1:10am):_

_This is not the right way to go around getting me to talk to you._

_Freddie (1:10am):_

_Fine. I'll ignore that. For now! So, why a cat?_

_John (1:12am):_

_Why not a cat? They're fluffy little balls of sass that are simultaneously telling you to go away and come and pet them. How much more awesome can you get than that?_

_Freddie (1:13am):_

_A python. That's how much more awesome you can get. Pythons are so cool! Besides, it's much more manly to like pythons than cats._

_John (1:14am):_

_*manlier_

_Freddie (1:14am):_

_Don't you avoid my very pointed question hooligan!_

_John (1:15am):_

…  _was that even English?_

_Freddie (1:16am):_

_I need to find new friends to text at all hours of the night. You're too mean to do this with._

_John (1:16am):_

_As per usual, you started it. Don't blame this on me! If anything, I think I should get new friends._

_Freddie (1:17am):_

_*friend_

_John (1:18am):_

…  _really?_

_Freddie (1:18am):_

_FIGHT ME, BRO!_

_John (1:19am):_

_COME AT ME, BRO!_

_Freddie (1:19am):_

_*hits you with my lips gently because I'd actually feel bad if I decked you*_

_John (1:20am):_

…

_Freddie (1:20am):_

_?_

_Freddie (1:21am):_

_*FISTS! I meant fists!_

_John (1:22am):_

_I think I'm just going to go ahead and let you get to sleep now since apparently you're not able to even text correctly. Talk to you later. Goodnight_

_Freddie (1:23am):_

_Goodnight_

Wally fell asleep with thoughts of Freddie's mistype echoing through his mind.

THE NEXT MORNING

Wally blinked blearily at the midmorning sunlight filtering through his room. Wait, what? Midmorning sunlight? Did the Rogues seriously steal a van and trek up here themselves instead of calling him? Why would they do that? Unless, shoot! Unless they did call and he was sleeping. He'd never hear the end of that one. There would be constant jokes about him sleeping through everything and Len would probably put him through mandatory training to become a lighter sleeper because he was evil like that. Rolling his eyes, Wally made a blind grab for his Rogue phone, patting at his side table before realizing that there was no phone there. Groaning loudly, Wally actually sat up to look for it. When he sat up, though, he heard the creak of spandex and groaned again. He'd slept in his villain suit. Fantastic.

Listlessly, Wally rummaged through his pockets and finally found the right one, grabbing out his phone and turning it on, squinting at it. After a couple seconds of turning the phone so the glare from the window wouldn't obscure the screen, he realized that there were no missed phone calls or urgent texts. The Rogues hadn't called him at all.

Wally felt a stirring of unease low in his gut, but he pushed it to the side. There was still a chance that they just came back to the safe house a different way. He didn't know why, but sometimes plans change during a mission and there's not always time to inform everyone of the change until it's already been enacted. Like when they'd found him. They hadn't gotten a chance to tell Sam that they would be bringing a teen with them through the mirror dimension. He only found out when he opened the mirror for them. That's all this was. They had just gotten home by themselves for some unforeseen reason.

When he walked downstairs, though, there was no one around. The kitchen was dark and empty and the only things he could smell from it was his dinner from last night (early this morning?). That was especially weird. It was honored tradition that everyone who went on a heist together ate something together before heading off their separate ways. It was  _honored tradition_. The Rogues didn't break tradition. That was bad luck that they couldn't afford. So why had they broken it now? That stirring of unease turned into a maelstrom as Wally continued to pad throughout the house. There was no one here. There was literally no one else here. That couldn't be right. There had to be something else going on. This better not be the Rogues playing a prank on him because it was  _not funny_.

Licking his suddenly chapped lips and swallowing quickly, Wally threw himself back up the stairs and into his room. He practically shoved the comms device over and into his ear, switching it on and asking breathlessly, "Guys? You there? Where are you at because you never called?" There was no response. Desperately, Wally flipped to another channel, asking the same questions and getting the same response. He tried again and again and again, but there was no response. They must have taken their comms out. But  _why_? What was going on?

Biting his lip so hard that it started to bleed, Wally rushed over to his Flash-themed Heist Book. There were plans in there that said what to do if no one was answering the comms during a mission. The first step was to call all of the safe houses. There was probably someone at one of them who could answer the questions. So Wally called the safe houses. Every. Single. One. And there were a lot. By the time he was done, it was twenty minutes later and his desperation had only increased. The second step was to try the comms again now that some time had passed. He did. No dice.

The third step was to wait for an hour and try it all over again. Wally couldn't do that. He could not force himself to wait for a regular human's hour to pass when he was so stressed. It might actually kill him. Running a hand through his thick red hair, Wally skipped to step four: call the Flash.

No. No way. That could not seriously be the last ditch effort. Wally took a few deep breaths and started punching the number into his phone. He could do this. He didn't hate the Flash anymore. This was for his family and he'd do anything for them. Anything. Steeling himself, Wally hit the call button. It wasn't long before someone picked up, " _Hello! Your family friendly speedster here!_ "

Wally voice was more than a little bit desperate when he rushed out, "Where are they? They were in Central last I checked! I literally dropped them off in Central. You have to know whether or not something happened to them! Where are they?"

" _Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who is this? I'm going to need to know that first._ " Flash threw back, still cheerful but with a more serious undertone.

"It's Momentum! Who else would this be? How many people have your Flash burner phone number? Ugh! That's not important right now! Where are the Rogues? I dropped them off in Central and they were supposed to call me for a ride home, but they didn't. They're not answering their comms or any of the phones at the safe houses. Where are they?" Wally growled out.

Flash's next words took his breath away, " _Momentum, I'm sorry. The Rogues were arrested by the Justice League._ "


	13. Panic Attack

WWWWWW

Wally had thrown down the phone as if it had burned him. His eyes were wide open and his hands were shaking. This was… this was wrong. He couldn't do this! He wasn't ready for this! The Rogues had been teaching him contingency plans for getting them out of jail, but this wasn't jail. This was the freaking  _Justice League_. This was an entire  _team_  of  _super powerful_  heroes! Wally felt the air leaving his lungs, whooshing out as if to escape him. Who wouldn't want to escape him? But that didn't matter at the moment because Wally couldn't breathe and there was something wrong and  _therewasn' ?WallywasgoingtodiehereandtheRoguesweregoingtobestuckanditwouldbehisfaultand_ –

A panicked voice tore Wally from his freak-out, " _Momentum? Momentum, are you still there? Are you okay? Where are you, Momentum? Please answer me if you're alright!_ "

With shaking fingers, Wally finally grabbed the phone and cradled it to his ear, curling in on himself and clutching at his chest with the other hand. He attempted to drag in enough air, but there just wasn't enough. For some reason, Uncle Barry's voice was soothing. It was helping calm Wally down, but that didn't mean that he could breathe yet. Voice wheezy and panicked, Wally stuttered out, "Uhn-uhn- Barr-ry. C-can't breathe. H-hel-help."

Barry sucked in a breath and for a moment, Wally couldn't help but feel like the Flash wasn't going to help him. The Flash was going to leave him to die away from Central with his family all rotting in a Justice League prison. And why should the Flash help him? Wally had never been kind to him and he'd never taken the time to get to know him. He was a horrible person and Barry had no reason to – wait. No. No, no, no, no. He did not just call the Flash Barry. Wally's desperate wheezes increased and his shaking hands almost dropped the phone. Black started crawling into his vision, promising silky calm and peace. Barry's voice startled him back into consciousness, "Momentum. You need to calm down. We can do this over the phone, but it would be easier if I was there with you. Can you tell me where you are?" The only thing Wally could get out was the state the safe house was in. Anything else required too much breath.

Barry hummed lightly in encouragement and said, "Alright, stay with me. Can you breathe with me? Count with me and breathe with me. Can you do that?" Wally nodded, not even noticing that Barry wouldn't know since he wasn't at the safe house yet. Barry continued anyways, voice calm and pitched low, "Alright, good. Ready? In... hold… out. Uno. In… hold… out. Laba. In… hold… out. Tlieta. In… hold… out. Empat. In… hold… out. Pae. In… hold… out. Chwech. In… hold… out. Seacht. In… hold… out. Eahta. In… hold… out. Negen. In… hold… out. Zehn." At some point during the spiel, Barry had appeared in front of him, holding one of Wally's hands to his own red clad chest and running his fingers soothingly through Wally's exposed bright red hair. He paused after getting to ten before making sure to look at Wally and asking, "You doing okay there now, bud?"

"Why do you even know so many languages?" Wally breathed out, still getting used to the feeling of being able to breath.

Barry's grin seemed a little off today, "I imagine for the same reason you knew all of them: it helps to know languages when you're running around the world. If you get stranded somewhere, it's going to help if you can ask for help." Wally just nodded, too emotionally exhausted to speak.

He was not, however too emotionally exhausted to squeak embarrassingly when Barry manually picked the younger speedster up and sat the two of them down on the living room couch. Barry was packed into one spot, leaning against the side of the couch. He'd placed Wally so the redhead was sprawled across the other two places with his legs hooking off then end and his head in Barry's lap. It was one of the most mortifying things he'd ever experienced. That didn't stop him from leaning into Barry's touch and just lying there in silence. Wally thought that he did pretty well for his first panic attack. He hadn't realized that they were that awful.

After another moment of silence, Barry spoke again, his voice still pitched low and soothing, "Momentum. I have to ask you a question, but I don't want you to freak out. Can you stay calm for me?"

The teen wanted to snap at his uncle, say that yes, he was perfectly fine and he didn't need to be coddled, but the fact that he didn't have enough energy to snap at his uncle seemed to go against his point. Instead, he admitted defeat and nodded. The Flash continued, "Why did you call me Barry?"

Wally froze up. He'd known he'd slipped up and called the Flash by his real name, but somewhere in the haze of panic he'd forgotten about that. He could feel his breath quickening again, but he gritted his teeth and took a steadying breath instead of succumbing to the threatening panic attack. His voice was quiet and raspy when he asked, "Isn't that your name?"

"What makes you think it is?" Barry asked back.

Wally closed his eyes, subconsciously leaning further into the fingers Barry was still carding gently through his hair. He answered, "I know your name is Barry Allen. I know that you're a forensic scientist with the Central City Police Department. Don't worry, though. I haven't told anyone. And I won't. Sorry for freaking you out."

"Sorry for freaking me out?" Barry tried to laugh, but now that Wally was looking for it, he could still detect the note of fear in Barry's voice when the man continued, "I should say sorry for freaking you out. The news  _I_  gave you kind of threw you into a full-blown panic attack. I really should have been more tactful. I wasn't thinking."

"… Why did the Justice League arrest the Rogues? Where are they right now?" Wally pressed, finally starting to get his breath back.

Barry paused and for a long moment, Wally didn't think he would answer and then, "The Rogues are still with the Justice League. They're at headquarters. They were stealing something. I think we were justified in arresting them."

Wally wrinkled his nose, "Why are they still with you, then? Shouldn't they be in transit to some sort of prison?" The blonde speedster hesitated again and Wally added a pitiful, "Please. They're my family."

Barry sighed, "We've gotten hold of a rumor that the Light wants the Rogues for something. We want to make sure that the Rogues don't get pulled into something like that and hurt…. We also really don't want the Rogues joining the Light. That would be very bad."

The Light. What was up with them? Suddenly they were permeating all the parts of his life. That was irritating. Wally bit back his further questions and joked, "And, what? I'm not good enough for protection via jail?"

It was something in the way Barry's lips twitched slightly into a frown that brought Wally to attention. It gave him less than half a second's worth of warning, but that was more than enough. Leaping to his feet, Wally managed to catch Barry under the chin with the back of his wrist. It was a sloppy hit and not enough to do any damage other than momentarily distract the enemy. And that's what Barry was now. Wally's jerk reaction attempt to flee had been all that had saved him from the inhibitor collar that Barry had been seconds from snapping around his relaxed, unsuspecting neck. Wally's eyes were wide and he was panting again, not quite over the whole ordeal, "Seriously? You came here just to arrest me? Was that the plan the whole time? You knew that we called you when one of ours go missing so you captured the rest of the Rogues so I'd call you and you'd have an excuse to come arrest me? What charges are you even bringing me up on?"

Barry grimaced, something sad drifting across the lower half of his face, "You are being charged with aiding and abetting criminal transactions. You as good as admitted it when you called to find out where the Rogues were."

"So that was the plan the whole time. You tricked me!" Wally really shouldn't have been so hurt by this. He should have known better. His voice went higher as he continued to get angrier, "Was that whole sob story you told me the other day just for the fun of it? Was it just so I'd trust you enough now for you to capture me? Was anything you ever did to help me like you always claimed?"

"Momentum, please. You know that it was to help you. We only recently got word of the Light's decision to use you guys. We needed to act fast and we knew that the rest of the criminal world would not take lightly to you guys just coming with us, so we have to arrest you. We're all just trying to keep you guys safe." Barry pleaded, hands out in supplication. It didn't help that he still had the inhibitor collar in his hand. The sight of it made Wally feel physically ill. He'd been in one of those before. He'd felt the smooth metal and plastic of the device that held his powers captive. He'd felt the itchy fibers of the material they made the actual collars out of. He'd felt the trapped, horrible experience of not being able to run. There was a constant, burning  _itchwantneed_  to run, to be faster, but no way to relieve the itch. He never wanted to experience that again.

Unbidden, tears pricked Wally's eyes and he stumbled backwards. He didn't even say another word before throwing himself out the door as fast as he could. He had to get away. He needed to leave. He absolutely could not stay there with that man who had betrayed him time and time again. He couldn't stay in the same room as that infernal collar. A few states over, he realized that the Flash was still following him. Wally needed to get away. He needed somewhere that the Flash either couldn't follow or wouldn't be willing to. Where on earth was there a place like that? While he thought, Wally continued to flee, crossing entire countries in minutes. He could practically  _feel_  the Flash catching up to him.

Thinking fast, Wally saw a village next to the beach in whatever country they were currently in. The village was completely deserted, all of the people further uphill, doing some sort of dance or something. Wally didn't have time to care about what they were doing. He didn't have time to care about them. The Rogues were right. He couldn't feel regret when it meant saving his family. And he couldn't save his family if he was captured.

Making a split second turn, Wally starting running in a small circle on the water, twisting and turning until he had succeeded. He saw the Flash run up to where he was. He saw the expression of horror on the Flash's face before he ran away. In the background, he could hear the winds and splashing that represented the virtual hurricane he had just created to crash into the empty village. Flash had the choice of either unravelling the hurricane, or running after Wally. It was basically the same as the last time Wally had been close to jail; he took advantage of the Flash's heroic qualities to avoid getting captured. The older Rogues had been right. It did get easier each time.

Wally turned again once he was out of the Flash's sight. He had a significant head-start now. And he knew the perfect place to disappear. Within minutes, Wally was wearing his Arrow suit and was in the same bar from his first mission, politely inquiring after an Eel.

He was informed by the Catwoman waitress the Eel wasn't here at the moment. Apparently the man had told Catwoman (who introduced herself as Ramona – only to the people that Eel trusts, of course) that it was the Kid (Wally) who convinced him to go up and meet her. The two had started dating the day Wally had left the bar which he found kind of weird, but whatever. And then Eel had apparently gone underground after a heist gone bad with his old ring. Ramona offered to give Wally Eel's phone number, but he declined. He already had the number. Finding a seat and ordering some fries and a burger, Wally pulled out his burner cell and dug out Eel's business card. He dialed it in and held the phone to his ear, glancing around the room suspiciously and taking a couple bites of his burger. It was loud enough in there that no one would overhear him but he'd still be able to hear Eel.

It took a few rings, but eventually someone picked up the phone, " _Hello?_ "

"Uh, is this Eel? This is the Kid. I met you in that bar with Catwoman. Who you're apparently dating now." Wally asked, nudging the food on his plate with one finger.

" _Kid! My man, what's up? I didn't think I'd be hearing from you so soon. Need some more awesome advice? How'd the stuff with Onomatopoeia go down? That vigilante out of the way now?_ " Eel asked, rapid fire. There was something in his voice that made Wally feel like maybe Eel didn't want the vigilante to be dead.

Frowning a little bit, Wally said, "How about I hear out your problems first? I heard that your ring left you after a heist gone wrong. You doing okay?"

" _You know, man, I'm actually not. And, strangely enough, I actually feel comfortable talking to you about this. Maybe it's because it's over the phone. Maybe it's because you're totally a kid, no matter what you say. You see, I'm in a bit of a rough patch. I didn't come out of that botched job pristine and – get this – some monk took me in and patched me up. He even got the police to leave. There's other stuff going on too, but… I don't know. We'll see. I'm just kind of having a crisis. Being a criminal never really got me anywhere and my ring were a bunch of losers who ditched me at the last moment. Ramona – that's the Catwoman waitress – wants to get a more respectable job now that she's saved up some money. Maybe going the opposite might be the best decision. I don't know._ " Eel got out all in one rush.

"Haha, your problems are pretty sucky. But, I gotta ask, when you say 'maybe going the opposite', how opposite are you talking? Like, normal life, or police officer opposite?" Wally asked. Freddie was totally wrong. He had more than one friend! He had Freddie and Roy and Eel. Take that.

Wally could practically hear Eel shrug, " _Well, I was actually thinking more towards… more towards the superhero spectrum._ "

There was silence for a long moment (at least, it felt long to Wally) before Wally let out a deep breath and said, "Oh."

" _Yeah, oh. I just… I said there was other stuff going on and that, well. I can do a lot of stuff now that I couldn't do before and I could totally help people! I just… it's a pretty big adjustment, you know? Criminal to superhero? My ring abandoned me, like, a day ago. So I'm not sure what I want to do or anything. I might just go normal life style. Then again, I'm not sure I_ can _anymore._ " Eel said, finishing off sounding infinitely sad.

Wally thought for a moment. Obviously it wasn't taking as long in normal people time, but it was still nice that Eel was willing to let him think it through. Wally really didn't want to do this because it kind of seemed like betraying everything he stood for as a villain and as a betrayed little street kid, but… "Hey Eel, if you really want to be a superhero, I've got the Flash's phone number. Just let me know and I'll hit you up, okay?"

There was a stunned pause and then, " _You are full of surprises, Kid! Man, where'd you even get that? Nevermind, I don't want to know. Now, what kind of problems are you facing? I've got to really step up after your awesome assist there._ "

"Some of my friends were arrested by the Justice League. I know how to get them out of the major prisons and whatnot, but the JL is keeping my friends at their HQ. I know where the HQ is, but I don't know how to get my friends out. Like, do I free them and then distract while they run? Or do I distract, throw them something to free themselves with and make a run for it? I have zero clues as to what to do." Wally sighed, placing his head in his hands and staring dejectedly at his food.

" _Yo, I've got no idea. That kind of thing is not quite up my alley. Plus, if I gave you too many ideas, it might kill my chances at becoming a hero, you know? All I can say is… well, I guess think about the fact that they expect normal full frontal and normal sneaky attacks. Try to do something that they've never seen before. Improv on the spot. Stuff like that. That's what will get you and your friends out. But, man, call me when you're done, yeah? Because otherwise I'm going to assume you died in there or something._ " Eel said, voice simultaneously worried and amused.

Wally cracked a grin in response even though Eel couldn't see, "Thanks man. I'll call you then. Talk to you soon hopefully. Bye Eel."

" _Patrick, Kid. The name's Patrick. I figured it was the least I could do._ " Eel – no, Patrick – responded.

Wally had to blink at that, not entirely certain it just happened, "I'm Wally. Goodbye Patrick." And with that, Wally pulled the phone away, already hearing dial tones.

He thought over what Patrick had told him. He had to find a unique approach. He needed to do something they wouldn't see coming. What he really needed was access to their actual headquarters. They said that JL HQ was at the Hall of Justice, but Wally did not believe that for a second. Sure, there was probably an entrance to the actual headquarters within the Hall of Justice, but that was not where they actually met and made decisions. They weren't that stupid. So… what to do? Getting into the place would be his first challenge. He certainly wasn't good enough at breaking in to get into a superhero stronghold and they probably had enough safeties to prevent someone of any skill from getting in. So… he could vibrate through the wall! That would work! Well, if he could vibrate through something. He'd never tried doing it before.

There was his first step! He just needed to practice vibrating through walls and then he could go back to planning. Quickly paying for his food, Wally left the bar and sped over to Central. He'd go to one of the safehouses and practice this! It was his only chance to get his family back.

It didn't work. Vibrating through walls was a lot harder than it should have been. The ginger speedster had tried three times now and nothing had happened. Fantastic. Gritting his teeth, Wally prepared to try again, but then he heard a sound. He only got a chance to whip around before the Flash was standing there looking at him. Wally snarled, "What do you want?" What did he have to do to get away from this guy?

The Flash shrugged, "I figured you'd end up in one of the safehouses eventually. Whatcha trying to do over there?"

"Why do you care?" Wally growled. He refused to show his back to the Flash, but because of their positions and location of the furniture, he couldn't actually escape the room. He felt a desperate anger well in him. This shouldn't be this difficult! Why did he keep messing up so badly?

"I know a trick or two for vibrating through things, you know. How about I teach you how to do it and you come with me so the Justice League can protect you?" Barry asked.

"How about you get out of my house and never come back?" Wally muttered angrily, clenching his fists.

The Flash beamed because he had problems, "Alright, I'll teach you. So, everything vibrates at a certain frequency, right? All you have to do to vibrate through something is to vibrate yourself at that certain frequency. You should be able to judge the kinetic forces around you to know what the frequency you have to get to is. C'mon, try it." He beamed again.

"I hate you." Wally muttered viciously. The Flash didn't seem at all affected by it. On the one hand, trying it again would mean putting his back to the Flash and that would mean presenting the man with an easy opportunity to take him down. On the other hand, Flash had given some pretty good tips, so he supposed that he really should try. It wasn't his fault that the Flash was basically helping him break his family out of the JL HQ. Taking a deep breath, Wally tilted to the side and put his hand on the wall, trying to sense the kinetic energy of the wall…. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. Fantastic.

Trying again, Wally felt with his own kinetic energy and just kind of, thought about it. Lo and behold, he could feel the energy of wall. Grinning victoriously, Wally started vibrating, taking a few steps back. His eyes were alight with discovery as he ran through the wall! Well, as he tried to run through the wall. Because he failed. Epically. Closing his eyes, Wally felt at his nose – the victim of the point of impact. It was definitely broken and bleeding and bruised and he must look like a mess right now. He couldn't even take off his cowl to set the nose because the Flash was still there and what if he recognized Wally?

"Shoot!" Flash shouted, rushing over to Wally's side. Wally scrambled away from him, hunching his shoulders up and raising his hands to defend himself. The whites of the Flash's cowl widened and he stepped back, his arms raised, "Sorry! Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Do you need help setting your nose? I don't know what happened. That was exactly what my mentor told me when he was showing me how to vibrate through things."

Wally wasn't paying attention. He'd seen one of Trickster's gadgets lying on the couch next to him and he realized that he'd managed to switch his and Barry's positions. He gripped the gadget and shot it at Barry, only slightly noticing that it was some sort of launched bomb that exploded into a multitude of multicolored hamsters.

If Wally hadn't been running as fast as he could to get away from the Flash, he would have definitely done a double take and stared incredulously at the gadget that definitely was not big enough to have been holding that many hamsters. Wally also wanted to see how they were surviving in there because the Rogues hadn't been back to this safe house in a good two weeks.

None of that mattered at the moment, though. All that mattered was the Wally finally had an idea for breaking his family out.


	14. The Escape

WWWWWW

Okay, Wally was ready for this. It had taken just over a day to collect all the supplies he'd need (not aided at all by the fact that every time Wally went to one of the safe houses Flash descended on him like some sort of unescapable demon). The escape part of the plan was super easy. All he had to do was get all the Rogues into wherever Sam was being kept hidden and then get Sam a mirror. Then, voila. Escape guaranteed. It wouldn't be pleasant for anyone because no one likes the mirror dimensions and they like it even less when Sam doesn't have a destination in mind right away, but there wasn't enough time nor a chance to get a message to Sam. They'd just have to make do once the plan started.

Step one of his plan: Wally really needed to get rid of the Flash. The man was getting seriously irritating and he was the only one that Wally needed to worry about when it came to speed (other than Superman, of course, but Wally was just going to ignore that). The thing was, the timing was pretty delicate. Wally needed to use the Flash to get into JL headquarters since the whole vibrating through stuff hadn't really panned out all that well. But he also needed the Flash to not be in fighting shape once they got into headquarters. So: problem. What he needed to do was pretend to surrender to the Flash and then take him down once they made it to HQ. Therein lied another problem, though. That stupid inhibitor collar. If Wally couldn't run, then how was he supposed to do anything? Wally had a plan for that.

Walking into another one of the safehouses, Wally sat down. All he needed to do was wait for Barry to end up at this safehouse. The elder speedster had been running through each house on a random pattern, stopping and waiting in each one for a bit before moving on. It was a surprisingly effective tactic. As was proven when the Flash flew into the room moments later, pulling to a quick stop (that most certainly did  _not_  have Wally jealous) and glancing at Wally apprehensively.

Gritting his teeth, Wally stood and said, "Arrest me. Take me in. Whatever.  _Protect_  me." He spat out the last two words as if they burned his tongue before continuing, "I obviously can't help my family from out here, so I'll go in there and we'll figure out a way to escape from the inside."

Barry winced, "You know that we're keeping all the Rogues separate, right? We can't risk you guys escaping like that. Besides, even if you got together and planned it out, you still wouldn't escape. It's a stronghold. Please, just let us protect you until the issue with the Light blows over and then we'll transfer you guys to a normal jail and it'll be fine. You can try to escape from there and you'll probably succeed, but don't get your hopes up for escaping us." Wally just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms petulantly.

The Flash stepped closer as if Wally was an animal about to startle away. Even though it made Wally's skin crawl, he let the Flash close the inhibitor collar around his neck before turning it on, effectively cutting Wally off from his ability to run. It was like a physical pain and Wally gritted his teeth at the thought of bearing it for however long it took to get the Flash taken care of. He'd get the thing off as soon as possible, but he just needed to deal with it for now.

Stepping lightly over to Wally, Barry sealed the deal with a pair of handcuffs to keep Wally's hands immobile behind his back. What Barry didn't know was that Wally had planned for that. After securing him, the Flash slipped an arm around Wally's waist and crouched to get his other arm behind the redhead's legs, standing up so Wally was in a bridal style carrying hold. Wally growled, "I can walk on my own! Put me down!"

"You can walk on your own, but you can't go as fast as we should go." Barry threw back, a note of apology in his voice that Wally refused to acknowledge. He had no right to be sorry. He was the one that got Wally into this situation in the first place. And to think that Wally had thought of trusting Barry.

It took them only moments to reach the Hall of Justice. There must have been some sort of secret entrance because Barry never went through any crowds to get to the door. Only, it wasn't any sort of door that Wally recognized. When Barry stepped through, there was a flash (no pun intended) of bright white light and then a rushing, whooshing feeling that was kind of like going into the mirror dimension but not as nauseating. Wally vaguely heard something reading out some sort of designation code overhead, but he was still trying to blink the whites out of his eyes.

He was kind of sorry he'd done that because what he saw totally killed his plans. There were other people! Other  _heroes_! They were just milling around, talking to each other and laughing. Did none of them have lives they had to get back to? Or people to save? Seriously, if this is what the heroes of the world did, then Wally was glad he was a villain. Someone called out from the side, "Whatcha got there, Flash? I don't recognize that one." Wally identified the uniform and figured out that the one talking was Green Lantern.

Flash hefted Wally down and put a hand on his back, urging him forwards while turning slightly to talk to Green Lantern, "This is Momentum, the new member of the Rogues I was telling you about."

"Oh yeah? The one that's been running you ragged the past day or so, right?" Green Lantern grinned, sarcastic and bored. Wally kind of liked him even though he was a hero and obviously friends with the Flash. No accounting for bad taste.

"Haha. Hilarious." Flash deadpanned, prodding Wally down a side hallway. The other heroes were starting to thin out (seriously, how many  _were_  there?) and it only took one more turn (which Wally dutifully memorized in case his other plans went sideways) before the only people in the hallway were the Flash, the Green Lantern, and Wally. It wasn't exactly ideal, but Green Lantern didn't seem to have any intention of leaving, so Wally would take what chances he got.

Wally was filled with a sort of nervous energy as he slowed down imperceptibly. He made sure that Barry was looking at the Green Lantern before Wally started fiddling with the tip of his glove. The catch didn't work all the well since Wally had had to add it in last minute, but it still worked after a few seconds. It was… just… stubborn… sometimes… and… there! The catch came unlocked and one of his arm compartments just fell open. Out of it came three hundred and seventy six (yes, he did count) marbles. The Flash, who was standing right behind him and who really should be able to deal with this by now, stepped onto a multitude of marbles and flailed comically for a moment before dropping to the floor, smacking his head against the ground.

Amazingly enough, the marbles rolled right under the Green Lantern's feet too, so he fell to the ground as well. It was a stroke of good luck that Wally would not take for granted. He quickly pressed a button he'd installed on his gloves that would send a really small electromagnetic wave out of his hands, effectively killing the electric lock on his cuffs. The heroes were groaning and starting to stand up, so Wally had to get going. He picked the lock quickly – Len's endless training sessions were actually helpful in the long run; who knew – and turned around. He punched Barry, feeling something smug uncurl in his stomach, but not dwelling on it for long. He needed to get going. Steady fingers unlatched the inhibitor collar around his neck, ignoring the electric shocks it sent through his system. He'd known that the collars basically electrocuted you if you tried to remove them without permission, but it'd been a while since he'd actually tried to remove one of those things. It hurt!

Finally working it free, Wally latched the collar onto Barry's neck and closed the handcuffs around the unconscious man's hands. He didn't feel the satisfaction he thought he'd get through the action. Instead, he just felt sad. He couldn't dwell on that, though. He needed to get going. The Rogues weren't going to rescue themselves (although, that would have been nice). A low groan and the sound of scattering marbles caught Wally's attention. The Green Lantern was starting to get up, holding his head and using the wall to pull himself up.

Wally inwardly panicked for a moment – what was he supposed to do? He didn't even know how Green Lantern powers worked! Wally was pretty sure the hero was human, though, so if he managed to knock the man out, then there wouldn't be that much of a problem. He'd take a while to wake up. Thinking fast, Wally started rotating his arm quickly, creating a wind gust and aiming it at the green hero. The man struggled to maintain his footing before he steadied himself and raising the arm with a ring on it. Was that where the powers came from? Wally didn't want to wait and find out, so he pulled out a small little box that he'd grabbed from James's room in one of the safehouses. Pressing a button, Wally zipped forward and aimed the device at the hero's face. Seconds later, a huge boxing glove sprung out of the box and smacked right between the hero's eyes. Wally laughed with delight. Yes! This was going great! He still didn't understand how James was keeping these things in these small little containers. He'd ask the older teen when he freed him.

He didn't have anything to keep the green hero immobile, so Wally just hoped that the man stayed unconscious long enough for Wally to pull the whole thing off. Trying to seem nonchalant, Wally strolled lightly through the halls.

Step two of his plan: locate all the Rogues. He really, really hoped that they were all sitting in cells next to each other or something because otherwise this was about to get a lot more complicated. Idly, Wally scratched at his neck, still feeling the phantom itches of the inhibitor collar. He was able to get away with acting like just another new hero by glancing around the rooms with a slightly awed expression and waving to the heroes, but that was probably only because there weren't any big hitters wandering around by him. Any second that there weren't other heroes around, he'd super speed through the halls. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed the unconscious heroes surrounded by marbles.

Seven halls later, Wally finally found the prisoner's bay. He almost jumped for joy, but he knew better than that when there was a chance that someone could walk around the corner and see him at any moment. Okay, now he just had to make sure that all the Rogues were here. He couldn't miss a single one. So he walked calmly down the hallway, making sure to not glance to the side obviously. Instead, he used his super speed to send sneaky glances in either direction, checking each of the cells.

So far… no Rogues… no Rogues… no Rogues… Ah! Finally. He saw a room made entirely of rough plastic. There wasn't a single shiny thing in sight and Sam was sitting dejectedly on the bed in his room, head in his hands. Wally couldn't help but grin at the sight.

He saw Hartley next. The older teen was idly flipping through a book he'd apparently been provided with. The expression on his face said everything about how bored out of his mind he was. Long, slender fingers tapped his leg repeatedly, his lips twitching down. The walls, floor, and all the metal seemed to be covered in fabric. That was likely so Pied Piper couldn't make a musical instrument out of the prison supplies. The joke's on the Justice League because Piper could make a paper flute. Fools.

Then there was Heatwave. His room was pretty well ventilated – Wally could see Mick shivering slightly like he always did when it was anywhere below seventy degrees. Again, the thermostat wars were  _legendary_. Mick was staring intently at the wall and Wally almost did a double take to see what exactly it was that had Mick so entranced. He didn't look again because not only would it get him caught, but also because Mick likely wasn't actually looking at anything. Honestly, he was probably just thinking about fire.

Len was in the next cell. He was sat on his bed so he faced the door. His legs were spread and his elbows rested on his knees, his steepled hands tapping lightly against his lips. There was sweat beading against his brow, showing that they'd turned the heat up in his room. Captain Cold was the only one to look up when Wally passed. Wally was gratified to see something immensely  _proud_  in Len's look before he was passing the cell and moving onto the next one.

Digger's cell was almost identical to Mick and Len's just without the changing temperature. Everything was bolted down. Mark's cell was more similar to Sam's with all the plastic. The JL probably didn't want him to get some static build up (rugs) or to have a good conductor (metal) in the off chance that he managed to push past the pain and get his inhibitor collar off. Something in Wally ached at the thought of anyone else having to wear one of those things. James's cell was a little different. He was in a literal padded room, his arms trapped by a straight jacket. That didn't seem to matter to the villain because he was cheerfully singing something to himself anyways.

Alright, that was everyone accounted for. Good. Awesome. Just a few more steps to go. This was when he really needed to get moving quickly.

Step four of his plan: get one of the heroes to open the doors. Well, not necessarily have one of the heroes do it. If he could get a way to open the doors, then he was totally cool with doing it himself. He'd hope that whomever was closest to the jail section would have the keys to the cells and he really hoped that there weren't any sort of codes or anything. That would majorly suck. Honestly, there was a depressingly large amount of this plan that was based on what he hoped would be the situation. Anything else and he was screwed.

Eying what looked like a camera (who could even tell with these fancy heroes?), Wally grabbed a tiny little spray can out of one of his pockets and aimed it at the camera. In super speed, he knocked out all the cameras in the area. At least, all the ones he could see. He hoped that was all of them, or at least enough. Moving quickly, Wally opened a quickly added compartment on his back (that would be coming off as soon as this was all over because it was super uncomfortable) and took out seven thin collapsible metal rectangles. He opened them up, pleased to note that they were big enough. They were a little  _too_ big, but not enough to cause serious problems.

He placed the metal in front of all the doors housing his family and then he grabbed the paint he'd collected in various pockets and pouches on his suit. Painting as quickly as possible, Wally covered each metal with an approximation of what the doorway would look like if the door was open (he really, really hoped that the doors slid to the side instead of pushing/pulling open) and the prisoner had escaped.

The paintings finished, Wally panted a little bit and put the nearing empty tubes away. The hope was that someone in the control center or whatever in this place would have seen the cameras go dark. They would have sent someone to check the doors – probably whomever was supposed to hang around the cells. That person would check in and see all the prisoners missing. Before the person could call for help, Wally intended to get their attention and freak out before knocking them out and using their key or card or whatever to get everyone into Sam's room. Then he'd take one of the collapsible metal sheets (he'd be kind enough to leave the rest for the heroes; it was the least he could do) and bring it into Sam's room. It should be clean enough to work as a mirror. Wally couldn't do much about whatever the heroes had confiscated, but he knew that all the villains kept duplicates of their weapons and suits hidden in places in case they lost or broke the originals.

What Wally had not planned for, however, was two people running down the corridor to meet him. Because that was not supposed to happen. Worse still, both of them were big hitters. These were major league justice league members. One of them was a  _founder_. Wally found himself more than a little star-struck and a lot terrified as freaking  _Green Arrow_  and  _Aquaman_  ran down the hall to meet him.

Wally had to take a couple deep, shuddering breaths to center himself before he jogged (at human speed) to meet the heroes. He pulled to a stop and gave them a wide-eyed (wide masked?) look, gasping out, "I heard running and I came as soon as I heard it. Someone had said that this was where the prisoners were kept and I figured that prisoners shouldn't be running around and who else would be so I ran out to meet them. I figured that I'd try to hold them off and hope someone noticed that they'd escaped pretty soon because I didn't know how to, like, sound an alarm or something, but by the time I got here, there was no one here."

Green Arrow clapped a hand on his back, making Wally's back muscles twitch, but he didn't outwardly flinch. Aquaman said gravely, "You did well, young hero. Which direction did you hail from? We will know then that the villains escaped through the opposite side."

"I came from back there, but they could have made it through there before I did. Like I said, they were long gone before I got here and there are all sorts of side halls and stuff here." Wally said emphatically.

Green Arrow muttered, "Nice." Aquaman wandered a little off to the side to speak over the comms to, presumably, the other heroes, telling them to fan out and check the rest of the building because the Rogues were missing. Green Arrow turned his attention to Wally, "Good job, kiddo. You new around here? I don't recognize you."

"Why does everyone call me a kid?" Wally pouted. Green Arrow laughed and slapped his back again. This one was certainly tactile. Wally could work with that. Opening another latch on his glove (this one had originally held a chord that he could attach to a computer to upload data, but he'd taken it out for the mission), he casually pulled and pulled at the fingertip. Once he'd pulled enough out of the glove, Wally turned quickly, grabbing the hand that had been rested on his shoulder before wrapping the extra tough magician's cloth around the hand. It was one of those clothes that magicians pulled from somewhere innocuous and kept pulling and pulling until it seemed like it would never end. It was wonderfully useful for this situation as Wally turned and twisted Green Arrow, wrapping his hands in the cloth and wrapping it around his body before tangling it in the bow and then tying it in a sturdy knot just out of reach of the archer's hands. Wally was mentally apologizing to Roy for attacking his mentor.

By the time Aquaman realized what was going on, Green Arrow was left struggling on the floor and Wally was throwing a punch directly in the Atlantean's face. Remembering what he'd done to the man's protégé, Wally briefly considered surrounding the man with flames, but that wasn't the best of choices in this small of a hallway. He did still need to get his teammates through after all. Plus, there was almost no chance of getting Mick to leave when there was a perfectly good fire burning right there. And Wally did not want to deal with that.

So Wally did the next best thing. He threw a handful of magnetic rubber chickens (don't ask him how it worked; he tended to just go with the things James's made and assume that there was a little bit of magic involved in their creation) at the man. Aquaman was not only incredibly confused, but also incredibly wary. He pushed and pulled and swung at the rubber chickens as if they were dangerous animals. Either Aquaman was afraid of chickens or he thought that they were bombs. With the Trickster's inventions, though, it really wouldn't have been that much of a shock if they did explode.

Using the Atlantean King's momentary distraction, Wally darted in and started running in circles around the man. He ran faster and faster and faster until a whirlwind of air surrounded the hero. By the time the air started to leave the area, Aquaman had been distracted by the chickens long enough that Wally was going so fast that Aquaman couldn't dare put out his arm to stop the teenaged speedster. There was a good chance he wouldn't be keeping that arm – Atlantean biology or not. It wasn't much longer before the hero fell to the ground, unconscious. Lack of air does that to a person. Wally easily took the security badge and tested it on Sam's door, ignoring the angry, accusing eyes of the emerald archer. The badge worked!

Step five of his plan: get everyone to Sam's room. First was making sure that Sam knew what was going on, of course. The Mirror Master's supplies were the only things of his teammates that Wally had brought for them because he actually wasn't entirely certain how the whole mirror dimension travel thing worked and he wanted to make sure that they could get out of here.

He clearly startled the Mirror Master who jumped to his feet and swore loudly before seeing who it was that had barged so rudely into his room. Sam grinned and yelled out, "Momentum! You wouldn't believe how happy I am to see you! I could kiss you!"

"Please don't." Wally said with a grimace before talking as quickly as he could while still being understood by a regular human, "This giant sheet of metal will have to work as your mirror. This is your stuff. I'm counting on you to get us out of here. I'll run the others into the room as fast as possible. Got it?" Wally was out of the room the moment he saw Sam start to nod.

It took longer than Wally had thought it would to get everyone into Sam's room. He hadn't been as specific with the minutiae as he should have been when planning, so he hadn't really thought about the fact that he did not have a lot of room to get up to speed and still stop without smashing into the wall and knocking himself out or something so he could run people around as fast as he wanted to.

He ended up getting Hartley last since the teenaged villain was the closest to Sam. He'd wanted to get the ones farther away first so he'd have less distance to run when his time was cutting short. And it was definitely cutting short. There were heroes coming from both sides of the hallway. Leading the group from the right side was Batman and Superman. Leading the group from the left side was Flash and Green Lantern. Shoot! They weren't supposed to have gotten out already.

Distracted as he was by the oncoming heroes, Wally didn't notice that Green Arrow had freed himself from his multicolored bonds. The man tackled Wally who flung Hartley away from him in an effort to keep the Pied Piper safe. There was a small 'oof' as Mick caught the flying teen. Len was carrying James who was unfortunately still bound by the straight jacket. Wally's family yelled out to him desperately. Sam was already halfway through the mirror and pulling the rest of the Rogues through.

Kicking out, Wally managed to hit Green Arrow in the shin, but it did absolutely nothing to deter the man who simply held on tighter and started to try to drag him back and out of the way of the door. Breathing hard and squirming, Wally started vibrating quickly. Eventually, the friction burns and excess heat became too much for even the Green Arrow who yelped and let his arms loosen. Taking his momentary advantage, Wally slipped through the loosened grip.

Green Arrow wasn't ready to let him go without a fight, though. With one last ditch effort, the emerald archer's fingers caught on Wally's cowl and pulled it down, choking him and yanking him back from his run. Wally panicked. The Flash was  _right there outside the door_. If Wally turned around now, the Flash would definitely recognize him. If Wally didn't turn around now, though, he wouldn't be able to find the catch that detached his cowl from the rest of his suit. The thought that if he was captured, the Justice League would take his mask off anyways, spurred Wally into a decision. Turning around quickly and locating the latch, Wally detached his cowl and rushed forwards towards the mirror and the waiting arms of his family. He pretended to not notice the stricken expression on Barry's face.

Tumbling through the mirror dimension was as unpleasant as it had been the first time he'd made a trip like that, but it didn't really register for Wally. All that registered was the absolute  _glee_  when he tumbled out of the mirror into Sam's waiting arms. For a few moments, all he could really process was a multitude of limbs and a bunch of people cheering and some slightly hysterical laughter. Wally pulled back after a second and said, "Wait, wait. Before we celebrate. Is this place safe? Does the Flash know where it is?"

Sam smiled tiredly down at him, "We don't tell him all of our secret spots. We're not that stupid, kid. This one's safe."

Wally practically melted at that, heaving a great sigh of relief, " _Awesome_. Because I've been dodging the Flash through all the safe houses I knew about. He's relentless."

"I hate to admit it, but I'm impressed kid. I didn't think you were ready to fight against heroes yet, but you somehow managed to infiltrate the Justice League headquarters and get us out of there." Len said, something soft in his expression that made Wally want to preen a little bit. Mick grunted in agreement.

"Seriously,  _how_  did you do that? I had no clue what was happening through most of that." Mark grinned, itching at the inhibitor collar restlessly.

Wally was about to comment on it, but Captain Cold beat him first, "You're getting that off first thing. Anyone know how to get those off?"

Wally shrugged, "I just tore mine off. I mean, it zapped me and it sucked a lot, but whatever. Beyond that, I really don't know how to get it off. Hey, actually. Do you think that sending an electromagnetic wave through it would knock out the power enough to get it off?"

Digger stared at him incredulously, "We'll talk about the fact that ya ripped one of them buggers off in a moment, but yeah, a wave should work."

"Seriously?" Wally asked, groaning to himself, "I should have definitely thought of that when I was trying to get mine off. Why can't I remember these things at the right time?" He walked over to Mark and gently placed his hands on the collar, using his gloves to send out an electromagnetic wave like he'd done with his handcuffs in the early stages of the escape plan.

It beeped once before dying and Mark immediately ripped the thing off, tossing it as far from him as he good. "Good riddance." He snarled. Wally could relate on so many levels.

"Tell us what happened." Len commanded. The group moved to sit in the assorted living room chairs (and it was really,  _really_  assorted; Wally was pretty sure that not a single chair matched one of the others) and Wally started talking. He started with waking up in the morning and having a panic attack to the Flash helping just so he could trick Wally. He skipped the bit with Eel's – Patrick's – advice and went straight to being cornered by Flash in one of the safe houses and getting the idea of what to do to help them escape from James's gadget. The weird hamster shooter or whatever had Bugs Bunny stickers on the side and that had reminded Wally of a few things that the characters did in Looney Tunes and he figured that he might as well try them out in real life. He described the whole plan and it's execution from start to finish.

When he was finished, Hartley burst out laughing, "I can't believe that actually worked!"

Wally grinned at him brightly, "I know right? There were a lot of times where I was, like, this is most certainly not going to work, but it actually did!"

Mick stood suddenly, gaining the attention of everyone as he lumbered out of the room. He called back, "You deserve your favorites for dinner. I'm going to go make them." It sounded almost like an afterthought, like it hadn't even occurred to him that he should probably tell the team where he was going.

Wally just blinked at his retreating back. Mark laughed, "That's Mick for 'It's been too long since I've seen fire and you did well, but I need fire.'" Mick swore cheerfully at him from another room. Wally just basked in the glow of being with his family again. He never wanted to be alone like that again. Weird what a month or so with actual, loving human contact does to a tough street kid.


	15. The Reveal

BBBBBB

Barry didn't know how to react. He was aware that he was just standing there dumbly while everyone around him tried to figure out what was going on, but he physically couldn't move. That was… that had been Wally. It had been four years since Barry had seen his nephew, but that was definitely him. There was something about those giant emerald eyes that just sparkled with something mischievous and infinitely sad that Barry would never forget. Iris kept a locket with Wally clasped around her neck in an effort to remember the nephew that had become like a son to them.

It was Batman's gruff voice that broke him out of his stupor, "Flash. Report. What happened?"

Flash blinked beneath his cowl, trying to pull himself together. Somehow, most of the heroes had left the hall and only the bigger ones were still there, glancing around them in confusion. Superman laid a comforting hand on Barry's shoulder, "You okay there, Barry?"

"Uh, yeah. I, um. Momentum gave himself up. He said that if he couldn't get the Rogues out from the outside, he'd try on the inside. I put the inhibitor collar on him and cuffed him and brought him here to the Watch Tower. Green Lantern ended up walking with me towards the cells where we'd drop Momentum off, but in one of the hallways, he… well, he dropped some marbles. GL and I tripped on them. As I was getting back up, he put the inhibitor collar on me and cuffed me. I saw him create a whirlwind with his arms to push GL back and then he used one of the Trickster's devices to knock GL out. It was a small little box that launched a large, pretty heavy boxing glove. I don't know anything past that." Barry said. His nephew had done that to him! His nephew had put an inhibitor collar on him. He'd put an inhibitor collar on his nephew. His nephew had super speed. Barry felt a little bit like his entire world was imploding. This was wrong. This was all wrong. Green Lantern squeezed his shoulder lightly and gave him a pointed look. Flash nodded back. He'd tell Hal later.

Batman rounded on Green Arrow and Aquaman next, "Then what happened?"

Green Arrow rubbed his wrists with a scowl, "You saw that the cameras went out in this corridor. Obviously we know now that the little brat did something to them and then you sent us down here to check it out. So we show up and the kid looks like a fish out of water or something. I assumed he was a new hero since he was dressed in a getup I hadn't recognized before and there weren't any blaring alarms saying that someone unauthorized was in the building, so I just went with it. He told us that the Rogues had escaped and we could see that for ourselves since we could see empty rooms. Now we know that he just painted those, but we weren't really thinking straight. It was less of, that room looks kind of drippy and more of, the Rogues are escaping, we need to find them. So I ask him if he's new and he just turns on me and wraps me up with that stupid cloth. I hadn't been at all prepared for a speedster to come at me with rainbow rope, so I went down with it."

Aquaman picked up from there, "The villain then assaulted me with rubber chickens that attached themselves to my suit. In attempting to remove them, the villain was able to start running around me. He sucked all the air away and I fell unconscious."

Green Arrow finished with, "When I finally got loose, I'd watched the kid get all of his teammates into Mirror Master's room. He was just bringing Pied Piper into the room while the others were being pulled into the mirror dimension when I got up. I tackled him, but he threw Piper into the room and kicked out at me. I kept trying to pull him out of the way of the door so you guys could get through, but then he started vibrating and it a little bit felt like he was burning my skin off, so I had to let go. I managed to grab his cowl, but then he detached it. Jerk."

Barry wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. His nephew was a villain. His nephew had just attacked Barry's friends. Batman scowled (more than usual, of course) and growled, "Flash. What do you know about Momentum?" What did he know about Momentum? He was not ready for that question. He could not mentally handle that question at the moment. He needed time to think this over. Batman didn't seem to care because he just pressed the issue, "You know something. What is it?"

Sighing, Barry finally slumped like he'd wanted to since he'd seen Wally's face in Momentum's villain suit. He scrubbed a weary hand over his face and mumbled through his palm, "Momentum is a speedster who joined the Rogues just over a month ago. They picked him up off the streets. Apparently he was injured and they figured that keeping a speedster around couldn't hurt. I know that things were rocky with him and the Rogues for a little bit. About a week after he joined them, Momentum ran because a job went south. It was actually when he robbed Oliver Queen. Or at least, tried to before Speedy – er, Red Arrow – stopped him." Barry sent his friend an amused smile that Oliver just rolled his eyes at. Barry continued, "That was when I first met him, but he hated me with a burning passion. I've been trying to get him to become a hero instead, but, again, he hates me a lot. When we took the Rogues, he obviously wasn't with them, but he called me the next morning asking where they were. I told him and he went into a panic attack. When I was there, he accidently revealed that he knew my secret ID."

Wonder Woman gasped, "How? How could he have possibly known?"

Barry pulled his cowl back and scrubbed a hand through his hair wearily. Mind blowing revelations really took a lot out of you. Barry swallowed and said, "Because he's my nephew."

There was silence for a moment before Hal laughed nervously, "The same nephew that went missing four years ago? Wally West, son of Rudolph and Mary West?" Barry nodded.

Superman had a hand to his chest, big blue eyes sad, "I hadn't known that you had a nephew."

Barry shrugged, "Yeah, well, it's a bit of sore spot. His dad was a drunk that ended up getting dragged off to rehab, so Wally ended up staying with Iris and I for a while. His dad came out of rehab looking like a whole new person and Iris and I thought that we could trust him. He seemed genuine enough. So we sent Wally back with him. We tried to visit as often as we could, but his dad always said that Wally was busy. It wasn't until Wally was hospitalized for being struck by lightning – and that should have set something off in my mind – that I finally got to see him. But then I had to go on a JL mission and when I got back… he'd disappeared. There was no trace of where him and his father went. I didn't even know if he was alive or not until Green Arrow got Momentum's mask off and I realized that my nephew was right there."

The other heroes were looking at him with sad eyes and horrifying expressions. No one liked it when they found out someone they loved was a villain. It was always the worst thing a hero could imagine for themselves. Hawkgirl clenched her mace tighter, eyes sad, "Barry… I'm so sorry."

His eyes were dull when he said helplessly, "I've been talking with him for weeks now. I should have known. How did I not know?"

"He worked hard to keep it from you. You couldn't have known." Clark said, resting his hand on Barry's shoulder again.

"I  _should_  have. But… why didn't he tell me? Why does he hate me so much? Oh god, I captured his team. I put an  _inhibitor_  collar on him. I  _captured_ him. What kind of uncle am I?" Barry let it all out in a shuddering breath, eyes tightening and his shoulders hunching. The others crowded as near as they dared and patted him on the shoulder or murmured words of encouragement. That was nice and all, but it wasn't what Barry needed. He needed someone to tell him that it wasn't all him. He needed someone to crack a joke and make him smile while he felt like his world was crumbling and he'd never smile again.

But, that was his job. It was his role in the team to make jokes and help others feel like their worlds weren't falling apart when they really, really were. He wasn't as smart as Batman and Mr. Terrific or as strong as Superman and Martian Manhunter or as battle ready as Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman. He didn't help as much as he should in the battles they fought together, so he had to make it up to them when they were all safe at the Watch Tower. He'd been called the glue that held the team together before and he wore that title with pride. He was contributing.

And right now, he wasn't contributing. Right now, he was dragging everyone's moods down with him and preventing them from making sure that the Rogues don't fall into the Light's hands. He couldn't do that to his team. He couldn't stop them from doing their jobs. So Barry shook his head and shook off the hands on his shoulders. He let his shoulders straighten and accepted his burden with pride. Giving them all a sad little smile, Barry said, "It's okay. I'll deal with it later. For now, we've got to find the Rogues. Maybe we should try a different approach this time. Less creepy stalker kidnappers and more friendly heroes." It was a weak attempt at a joke, but it was all he could get at the moment.

Batman seemed to accept it because he kept going, "You know the Rogues the best. What do you suggest we do then?"

Barry nodded to Batman and said, "Let me talk to them. I can try to convince them to come in willingly. It might help convince them a bit more if we had actual evidence to show them that they're in danger. I'll wait a day for things to calm down, but I won't wait longer than that. It would be too dangerous. Hopefully we can have something to show them by then."

Batman nodded back, "Understood. We will work on getting that now. We'll inform you if you find anything." He swirled away with a dramatic cape flaring. It was almost like a cloud following him around.

Some of the others followed Batman, creeping away with small, sad glances back in Barry's direction. In the end, the only two who were left were Green Arrow and Green Lantern. Barry grinned weakly, "One of you is going to have to leave because there's too much green for us to truly be Christmas."

"Loser." Ollie said, giving off the impression of rolling his eyes under his mask.

Hal slung his arm around Barry's shoulder and said, "C'mon, you need to go tell Iris and then we can go get drunk. I'm sure Iris will approve this time. There's good reason now."

Barry rolled his own eyes, laughing a little and letting his two best friends lead him towards home, "You know I can't get drunk."

Ollie grinned, "Who said anything about getting _you_ drunk?" Barry just laughed.

DDDDDD

Dick crouched in the rafters of Roy's new warehouse. If you asked him, he'd say that it looked pretty shabby, but then again, nothing compared to the Bat Cave. Then again, the Mountain wasn't that bad either. Anyways, Dick was waiting in the rafters to get to the prime position to scare the living daylights out of Roy.

He hadn't been waiting long before Roy walked into the room, but Roy was on the phone, so Dick figured that he'd wait for the conversation to finish. Who knew who it was that Roy had on the phone and Dick didn't want to ruin any potential leads that Roy might be chasing down. So Dick just sat in the rafters and waited.

Roy cradled the phone with one hand and started getting his arrows organized with the other. The archer rolled his eyes and commented, "I cannot believe that you broke into the Justice League headquarters. You are so lucky that you aren't sitting in a jail cell right now." Dick tilted his head to the side, curious. Was he talking about Momentum? Batman was even now going searching down leads to get actual proof that the Rogues were being threatened.

Roy was talking again, "How did you even get in? Better question, how did you know where the entrance was?"

He laughed, "Are you serious? You can't just trip people with marbles!" He paused, still just listening, "I feel like I shouldn't find this so amusing since I am actually affiliated with the Justice League…. No, I'm not a member. Oh really, you don't think I should join? I don't think that's your decision at all. You attacked my mentor? That's awesome, dude." Roy laughed again, "Hey, we're fighting currently so I feel completely justified in being amused at you literally tying him up with a rainbow rope. Where did you even get that thing?... The Trickster had it laying around? Why am I not surprised?" Dick gaped at his best friend. Since when was he that close to the  _supervillain_  Momentum? Why had he not told Dick?

Roy snorted, "Oh yeah, a ton of fun…. You're planning on hanging with 'Freddie' soon?" He put quotations around the name and Dick froze. What just happened? They were talking about him in his alter, alter ego. Why were they talking about him? He leaned forward a little bit as if to hear more. Roy nodded, "Yeah no. You, me, and Freddie going someplace together? I think we would literally kill someone…. You act like I'd remember to even call you guys by your names. I'd sit there and call you Momentum, not John."

Dick froze all over. That seriously did not just happen. John… was Momentum? No way. No way whatsoever. They couldn't be the same people. Then again… Dick thought back to Momentum's voice and John's voice. He thought about the dry, sarcastic humor they both shared and the bright red hair that seemed so unique. Slumping back against the rafter he was on, Dick smacked his head against the wall. Of course. Of  _freaking_ course. That was just his luck. Roy started to finish up his conversation, "You have to go?... That doesn't sound sketchy at all. What safe house are you even in?... Ha, you can't blame a guy for trying. Talk to you later."

He'd just put the phone down when Dick allowed himself to fall gracefully from the rafters, landing in a crouch right in front of Roy. He'd have laughed at the (manly) screech and mad scramble Roy did before the older hero managed to get his bow and arrow into position and aimed at Robin. Gasping, Roy lowered the bow again and held a hand to his chest.

"Seriously?" He hissed. Robin didn't even laugh. He was not happy. After regaining control of his breath, Roy gave Dick a weird look, "What's got you in such a bad mood? Full family dinner again? Rich jerks party?"

Dick shrugged, "Oh, nothing much. I just found out that my best friend knew that my new friend was a  _supervillain_  and didn't tell me. It just got me a little miffed, is all." Roy adopted his best innocent look. It was honestly pretty good, but Dick wasn't mentored by the world's greatest detective for nothing. Also, Dick knew his best friend, all his facial ticks and cues. At least, he thought he did. Apparently not.

Dick glared at the older hero until the ginger caved, "He asked me to keep his identity a secret."

"And that makes it okay? Why did you think it was okay for us to be friends with villains anyways?" Dick asked, anger permeating his voice.

Roy scowled, "He's a Rogue. Half the big hitter heroes are, if not friends, then friendly with the Rogues. It's impossible to not be."

"The same Rogue that broke into the Watch Tower and helped  _seven_ prisoners escape? The same Rogue that kidnapped Kaldur and left him to die alone on some island in the middle of nowhere? Of course. What was I thinking? He couldn't possibly be dangerous!" Dick argued.

"I never said he wasn't dangerous. All villains are dangerous just because of the lack of morals alone. I just said that there are a lot of people who are friends with Rogues and that the Rogues have even been found to help sometimes, so it's not that bad being friends with him. Besides, you like talking to him. He likes talking to you. Where's the problem?" Roy gritted out through clenched teeth.

Dick blew out a harsh breath of air, "Where's – where's the problem? I'm not 'a lot of people'. I don't do what the normal people do. I'm a Bat, Roy. That means that I know better. I'm not going to trust some criminal who all of a sudden wants to be my friend."

"What about Artemis?" Roy asked, tone dark.

Dick froze, "What about her?"

"She's 'some criminal who all of a sudden wants to be your friend'. Why is it okay for her to  _join_  a  _superhero team_ , but you can't be friends with a criminal when the both of you are out of costume?" Roy pointed out, gesturing with his point.

"Artemis  _switched sides_. She  _chose_  to become a hero. She could have followed her parent's footsteps and become a villain. She could have gone after her sister and become an assassin. But she didn't. She  _became a hero_. So, until Momentum makes the same decision, we can't be friends." Dick petered off, becoming quieter as he went. He sounded broken when he whispered, "It's too dangerous."

Roy sighed and stepped back – they'd both gotten closer to each other during the confrontation until they were shouting in each other's faces – before saying calmly, "Is that the Bat in you talking, or is that the Robin? Because, Dick, you've said it to me before. You don't want to become Batman. He's your mentor and a father figure and you love him, but you don't want to become him. This? This is you becoming him. I'm not saying it's a good decision to keep being friends with John – Momentum, whatever. I'm not saying it's a bad one. I'm just saying that maybe you should give it a chance. Try this out. Maybe you get burned and you'll have proved old Bats right. Maybe you won't get burned and you can stop being so suspicious of the world. So, confront him about it. Meet him somewhere and talk to him about it. I'll come with you and we'll tell him the truth: you overheard me talking to him about it. You should at least give him a chance."

Dick thought about it. He mulled over his options and his contingency plans. Then again, that was exactly what Batman would have done. Roy was right; he was already turning into Batman. He didn't want to be that broken, suspicious man who terrified everyone. He wanted to be the bright, cheerful, but still competent and commanding person that he hoped he was now. Suspicion was good – healthy even in their field of work. But sometimes it got to be too much. Sometimes there were points where suspicion did nothing good and actually cost lives instead of saved them. So, he'd try it. He'd listen to Roy and he'd try trusting John just this once.

Clearing his throat, Dick said, "Okay… I'll talk to him. But we should wait until this whole thing with the Rogues wanting the Light blows over. I doubt he'll be able to sit down and talk with us with a good portion of the League looking for a way to get them."

Roy frowned and almost looked like he was about to protest, but then he said, "Okay. That's works. Just let me know when."

Dick looked at his shoes, scuffing them gently against the floor, "Thanks for doing it with me."

"No problem." Roy said, already turning away to start rearranging his arrows. He coughed into his palm slightly, "We good?"

"We're good." Dick said. Roy immediately started detailing his patrol route for tonight. Dick smiled and nodded along at the right parts. He was still a little miffed at his best friend, but he knew where Roy was coming from. The older hero hadn't said it out loud, but Dick knew that the man worried about Dick and was constantly concerned that he didn't have enough friends. Dick knew that Roy would never purposefully hurt him and that neglecting to tell Dick the info about Momentum/John was him trying to let Dick keep the friends he made. So, even though he was still mad, Dick forgave Roy because Roy was his best friend and his brother and he was only looking out for the little bird.

WWWWWW

Wally was confused. And concerned. And maybe, admittedly, a little bit scared. Someone had just rung the doorbell. Which, yeah, shouldn't be that confusing or concerning or scary, but when you're in the middle of nowhere with no one knowing that you're here and the entire Justice League after you, those feelings are a bit more justified. So Wally told Roy that he'd have to call back later to finish their conversation and he crept down the stairs a little ways. He saw James and Hartley doing the same thing next to him, creeping down the hallway. He grinned at them and James beamed back, but Hartley just rolled his eyes.

When they got closer to the balcony, the three of them moved to slide forward on their bellies. If anyone looked up, all they'd be able to see through the shadow of the staircase were three pairs of eyes. Which, admittedly, would be quite creepy. At the moment, though, that didn't matter. What did matter was that Lex freaking Luthor was standing on their porch. Hartley and Wally shared a wide-eyed look. What was going on?

Luthor smiled primly at the adult Rogues, "I have a business proposal for you, if you would be interested in hearing it." He had the same kind of slow drawl that Len had. It was one that irritated people, but still captured their full attention and it made Wally wonder if that slow drawl was one of the signs of a super smart supervillain. He'd have to investigate that further.

Len raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "Talk then."

"Wouldn't it be more comfortable if we were to take this inside?" Luthor said, face smooth and practiced.

"Probably." Len said, completely emotionlessly. That was the biggest difference between the way the two of them talked. Luthor talked with such fake emotion. He sounded like a well-oiled salesman. It wasn't anything like Len's blunt, 'I don't even care', emotionless voice that told everyone exactly what he was feeling only when he wanted it to. In Wally's opinion, Len' was better. Either way, Len didn't move the group into the living room. He just continued to stare at Luthor, arm casually blocking entrance to the house.

Luthor acted unaffected by the rebuff, simply shrugging and saying, "It would be preferable, however, if this conversation was had with all the members of the Rogues. I mean -,"

Len cut him off, "I'm the leader of the Rogues. Tell me the proposition and I'll make sure that anyone who needs to know about it finds out. Are you going to tell me this proposition or just talk about ways you could tell me about it?"

Something twisted in Luthor's face. It wasn't blatantly obvious or portrayed by any sort of muscle twitch, but it was just a feeling that his face seemed to suddenly project. If Wally had to name it, he'd say it was respect. Luthor smiled again, a little more real this time, "I happen to be member of a criminal organization called the Light. We-,"

He was cut off by Len again who said, "You're the ones who want to use us for some big plan, right?"

"I wouldn't say  _use_  was the right word." Luthor deflected.

"Uh huh. Continue." Len said. Wally recognized that tone of voice from when Hartley snuck out to go meet up with a boyfriend, but ended up having the car break down and having to call home for assistance. He resisted the urge to snicker.

Luthor continued a little more forcefully than before, "We would benefit from your addition to the plan. Although we only necessarily need one or two of you, it's understood that you prefer to stay together as a team. We wouldn't dream to ask you to do any of the dirty work you prefer to stay away from. We won't ask you to kill or traffic drugs or anything like that. All we want is for you to distract a team of child heroes who have been getting in our way."

Mick rumbled out a laugh, "You can't even deal with a bunch of children?" The other Rogues snickered.

All except for Len, of course, who carried on the conversation as if no one had spoken, "What child heroes?"

"It is the same group of teenaged heroes that your newest member, Momentum, ran into when he was running – no pun intended – that job for Gorilla Grodd. They call themselves the Young Justice League and they have proven to be more of an irritant than our plan can handle." Luthor switched subjects, "Your pay would be quite impressive and you wouldn't have to do all that much work. We can easily work out the method of payment."

Len interrupted again, "We're not taking the job. Thank you for your time. Goodbye."

Luthor's foot in the doorframe was the only thing that stopped Len from closing the door on his face. Luthor's smile was obviously forced now, "May I ask why you won't take the job? Surely we can work out a compromise."

"You can ask, but you won't get an answer." Len responded, tone bored. Wally almost snickered again. Len used that on the kids all the time. Whenever they wanted something or were irritating him, he made sure to use that line. It was funnier when it wasn't Wally it was used on.

Something shifted in Luthor's face again and it wasn't respect Wally saw this time. This time, it was anger. Luthor stepped back a little bit and pulled his shoulders back so he stood tall, "I do not need the entire team. I will make do with just the newest member – Momentum. I will give you three options and a week to decide between them. Your first option is allowing the entire team of Rogues to join the Light. Your second option is to allow just Momentum to join the Light – temporarily, of course. Your third option is the death of every single one of your teammates."

Nothing in Len's facial expression moved, "Are you threatening me?"

"Yes, Mr. Snart. I believe I am." Luthor said, still standing to his full height.

"That, Mr. Luthor, was your mistake." Len responded. Then, not caring that he had to actually crush Lex Luthor's toe to do it, Len threw the door shut. There was a quick, muffled curse from outside the door and then silence. Luthor had left.

Mark called out, "C'mon boys. We know you're up there listening."

Sheepishly (except for James who continued to sit in his spot and stare at a spot on the wall), the other teenaged Rogues moved down the stairs and into the living room. Sam was the first to speak, "Wally. Don't you think for a single second we're letting you go join that group alone."

Wally frowned, "You can't seriously be okay with all of us joining that group either, though, right?"

"It's either that or death. We don't send people off alone." Hartley said, starting to frown as well.

Len rolled his eyes, "Don't be so melodramatic. We're not sending anyone off alone and we're not joining that worthless ring and we're not going to die. And that's the end of that."

"Lex Luthor is a part of that group. You can't imagine that there won't be other heavy hitters playing for that team. There is a good chance that we could actually die if they wanted us to." Mark responded.

"I thought I said that was the end of that." Len said, his voice doing the dangerously cold ice thing again.

Mark kept pushing, "Yeah, well, that's not going to cut it for me. We need a solid plan. Or we will die. And I'm pretty sure that none of us here want to die."

"I have a plan." Len said, settling down on the couch and turning the mute off on the TV.

"And what is this plan o' glorious leader?" Digger asked, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

"We give ourselves up to the Justice League." Len stated, eyes still set on the toothpaste commercial. The room broke into cries of outrage. Wally felt himself go numb. He couldn't face the Flash – Barry – so soon.

Sam was the first to say anything, "You want to go back to that place so soon after we escaped? So soon after Wally  _risked his life_  to help us escape?"

Hartley cried, "That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard of!"

Mick frowned, "What about our city?"

Len answered that one, "Gorilla Grodd will continue to protect the city as he has done every time we have left the city for extended periods of time. This is not the first time we have all been arrested at the same time."

Sam tried again, "Len, think about Mark and Wally. You're going to make them suffer through inhibitor collars for however long we're in there just because it's the easy way out?" Both Mark and Wally paled at the mention of the cursed things. Apparently they sucked for other metas as much as they sucked for speedsters.

"It's not the 'easy way out', Sam. It's the only way out." Len threw back.

"Not really," Wally protested, cutting off any rebukes with, "Think about it. I know you guys don't want to send me there by myself, but it's the best option. No, seriously. No one has to suffer through an inhibitor collar. We don't have to worry about making sure that Grodd is running the city right. You guys will be on the outside in case I need an escape. Also, no one dies. No one dying is always a good option."

"No, that is not a good option. We're not going to throw you to the wolves because it's convenient, Wally!" Sam cried.

"There is no winning in this place!" Wally cried back, throwing his arms in the air, "Look, I know I'm insecure! I know I'm flighty and constantly worried about being rejected, but you know what? You've convinced me! You have completely convinced me that you wouldn't abandon me.  _That's_  why I'm completely okay with being 'thrown to the wolves'. I know you'll be there to help me when I need it. I… I  _trust_  you to be there when I need it."

The room was silent after that little revelation. Everyone shifted slightly in their spot and glanced to each other. Eventually, all eyes settled on their leader. He'd be the one who made the ultimate decision. He'd be the one who told them where to go and even though they argued and disagreed and sometimes even kind of hated each other, all of the Rogues would go with whatever decision their leader made.

There was a long pause of silence, before, "Alright. We'll send Wally in."

RRRRRR

Roy was standing in front of the original seven Justice League heroes – with a few others who have been affected by the Light gathered there as well. He set down two boxes of papers. In it was everything Wally could remember from the boxes that Grodd had sent Wally to grab for him. It wasn't everything and the boxes had carried some gadgets too that Wally had made due with drawing and labeling instead of trying to rebuild. Overall, it was an impressively large amount of information. It was more than the group had gotten so far.

Batman immediately started leafing through the sheets, only pausing for a second to look at Roy and ask gravely, "What is this?"

Roy nods his head towards the piles of paper and responds, "This is what Grodd was after during that whole fiasco with Gorilla City. This isn't everything, but it's a good portion of two of the three boxes that were delivered. Roy very pointedly did not mention Momentum's name during any of this. The redheaded speedster was a touchy subject around the Justice League currently. Roy didn't know all the details – he was relying on only hearsay and Wally's words because he wasn't actually a member of the Justice League. All he knew was that a lot of heroes were bitter that they'd been duped by a teenaged speedster, and that something happened during the escape process that messed the Flash up. Roy could tell, too. Flash kept getting distracted and drifting off with a frown on his face. It was kind of sad looking, honestly.

"Where did you get this?" Green Arrow asked, sounding honestly curious. Roy had to stop himself from gritting his teeth and ignoring his former mentor.

Instead, Roy took a deep breath and responded, "I have a criminal informant who was able to get the information for me. They saw as much as they could in the time they had, but it wasn't enough to get a glance at all the boxes. They wrote down everything they saw from memory. From what I've got from it, this research is something to change magic into technology so even a non-magic person could perform a spell. I don't know what the spell is or what the end goal is, but that's what I've got. My CI has heard grumblings in the criminal underworld that Grodd tried to do something with this and failed. I'm not sure how accurate that is."

"Have you heard anything like that Flash?" Superman asked, turning to glance at the Flash. Barry was zoned out, staring at a chunk of wall. Superman prodded gently, "Flash?"

"Uh, what? Sorry. Uh, I haven't heard anything specifically like that, but the day after the boxes were delivered, Grodd was having some sort of a fit. He tends to do that when things don't go his way, so I wouldn't be surprised if he tried it and it failed and that's what got him all upset." Flash responded, making an obvious effort to pay attention. A couple of the other heroes frowned pityingly at him. Roy wondered what happened.

Black Canary focused the attention back on Roy, "Who is this informant? They're likely in danger if they're getting this close to big criminals like this."

Roy frowned, "They're my criminal informant. I'm not giving them up after they've trusted me with their information. They're being kind enough to help out a hero when they really, really don't have to. They could easy keep being just a criminal but instead they choose to help me. You know that Onomatopoeia guy who killed a couple of non-powered vigilantes in Star City? My criminal informant helped me catch him. I couldn't have done it without him. I won't betray him like that."

"If the CI's willing to do this, then I say let them do it. They've got to understand the risks." Green Arrow said. Roy wanted to scowl at him. He was only saying that in an attempt to win Roy back. Jerk.

Martian Manhunter tilted his head, "If they truly are willing to take these risks, then surely they would be willing to meet with us. They could prove incredibly useful in gaining more information on the Light that we would not be able to obtain otherwise."

"And why would they need to meet with you to do that? Why can't they just work through me? That way you get your info and I don't have to betray them." Roy scowled. Wally was  _his_  CI and Roy  _was_  going to protect him. This was why the Justice League always irritated him. That's not to say that he didn't want access to their information network and supplies, of course.

As if summoned by their conversation, the phone that Roy used for Red Arrow purposes starting buzzing in his pocket. Since the only people Roy gave the phone number to were either in the room (Oliver and Dinah), knew he was in the meeting and wouldn't call him (Dick), or a certain criminal informant (Wally), Roy was pretty sure he knew who was calling him. To make sure, he grabbed the phone out of his pocket and checked it. The ruby archer glanced back up at the group, "This is my CI calling. You either don't get their help or you get their help through me. You've got about ten seconds to decide and then I'll go a few halls over and let the them know and see what they have to say." He felt kind of awesome giving an ultimatum like that, but Ollie was giving him an unimpressed look, so Roy wasn't sure how to feel.

Seven seconds later, Batman said, "We will take their help through you."

Roy nodded and walked swiftly out of the room, already getting the phone primed to answer. He got far enough away and pressed the answer button seconds before the call went to his voicemail. Wally's voice floated through, " _Hey Red Arrow_."

" _Hey Momentum. What's up?_ " Roy said back.

Wally sounded conflicted when he answered, " _Lex Luthor just showed up at our door and basically threatened us. He said that either all the Rogues go join the Light,_ I _go join the Light, or we all die. After quite a lot of argument, we decided that they're going to send me to join the Light. So, um, yeah. That's a thing. That's definitely a thing that happened._ "

"Aw, man. You just made that so much easier for me. I gave the Justice League those papers that you copied down for me and they decided that they wanted you to get closer to the Light and report your findings back to me so we could take the Light down. Apparently you're one step ahead." Roy said, a genuine smile appearing on his face for a brief moment.

Wally laughed weakly, " _What are the odds of that?_ "

Roy raised an eyebrow, "Alright, what's up?"

" _Just… a lot of stuff going on right now. I… I was going to tell the Rogues who I was. I was going to tell them everything. Them getting arrested by the JL kind of interrupted me. And no one's asked me about it. I think they're trying to be nice and let me get to it at my own pace, but I'll never get there on my own. I think… I think I'm going to wait until after this whole fiasco with the Light blows over._ " Wally mumbled.

Roy frowned, "Why not just tell them now? Get it off your chest before you go undercover with the enemy?"

Roy could hear the furrowed brow in Wally's voice when he answered, " _What if they hate me for the truth?_ "

"What if? Who cares? You've got plenty of people who are willing to look after you. I mean, seriously. You can come sleep in my warehouse." Roy joked. He offered it partially because he knew the Rogues would never hate Wally – no matter what secrets he had up his sleeve – but also out of genuine care. He would house the speedster in his warehouse if he had to. The younger ginger needed a home and someone to take care of him. He deserved it too.

" _Well, then I'm not ready to tell them yet._ " Wally said defensively.

Roy rolled his eyes, "Stop making excuses and get off your butt and tell them. You don't have that much time. I'm pretty sure they'll still love you like a teammate afterwards."

There was a deep breath and then, " _Thanks, Red Arrow._ "

"No problem, Momentum." Roy threw back. And then Wally was disconnecting.

Walking back into the room, Roy faced the heroes who had watched him grow up, who he now stood on equal ground with, and said, "They'll do it."


	16. Different Motives

IIIIII

Iris wasn't necessarily a worrier. Yes, she worried. Constantly. But that wasn't the end result. And the end result was all that really mattered. The end result when Iris worried was some sort of creation. She wasn't a worrier; she was a doer.

So when Iris saw her husband walk into the house looking like someone had run over his puppy - his two best friends holding him comfortingly, Iris got up and started doing. She herded the boys over to the couch and grabbed the meal she'd been keeping warm out of the oven. Quickly dishing it out onto several plates, she bustled back into the living room, deciding that, this time, eating in there was alright. She wedged herself between Oliver and Barry and tangled her legs with her husband's, gently carding her fingers through his and gripping tight, putting his other hand on the plate to balance it on his knee. Barry sent her a small, tired, grateful smile that nearly broke her heart.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Iris said, leaning into her husband as much as he was leaning into them. If there ever was such a thing as soulmates, Iris was convinced that Barry would be hers. She couldn't imagine ever losing him or leaving him. That was why they trusted each other and told each other everything. They knew that they wouldn't scare each other off that easily.

Barry looked at her with sad, tired eyes and said, "I found Wally." Iris felt confusion beckoning to her, but she ignored it for a moment and really thought about what he said. He'd found Wally. Oh.  _Oh_. He found their nephew. He  _found_  their  _nephew_! She didn't interrupt, though, gesturing for him to keep going. He cleared his throat and spoke again, "He's a Rogue, Iris. That new one, Momentum. He's a speedster and a Rogue and a villain. I  _captured_ him, Iris. I arrested him and took him to sit in a jail cell. He hates me, but he calls the Rogues his family. What am I supposed to do? How do I fix this?"

The only thing Iris could think at the moment was that she was so, so proud of her beautiful husband. Finding out that your nephew is a supervillain would be crushing and yet, he obviously held it all in until he got home and it wouldn't affect the rest of the team. He was probably feeling so betrayed and he still asked how he should fix it. Barry just wanted to fix the problem for everyone. He just wanted to make sure everyone was happy. And that was one of the things about him that Iris fell in love with first. Gently cupping his cheek, Iris placed a light kiss on Barry's forehead and whispered, "I'm sure you're already doing all that you can. Thank you for telling me about this. We'll figure it out together, but, for now, it's dinner time. Eat and then sleep and then we'll talk more about it, okay? I love you."

Barry pressed their foreheads together and whispered back, "I love you more."

Iris smiled, their breaths ghosting across each other's faces, "I love you most."

Finally, Barry's lips curled up into their own beautiful smile, eyes crinkling adorably at the corners, "I love you more than that."

Iris giggled, "That's not possible."

"Wanna bet?" Barry asked, a laugh bubbling up in his own throat.

Before Iris could answer, Oliver called out loudly, "PDA! C'mon, that's nasty cute. We don't need that kind of sickeningly adorable stuff going on while we're in the room. That's just rude."

Iris mock glared at him, "Eat your food, young man."

Hal snorted, "Young?"

"Younger than you." Barry shot back, a challenge in his eyes. Iris dug into her own plat and leaning against her husband's shoulder. Everything would work out fine.

WWWWWW

 _Wally woke up from the coma to find his father leaning over him. The young redhead startled back, whimpering as his head bumped against something hard. Shifting around like he did had moved something_ in _his arm and he whimpered again at the feeling of cold metal moving under his skin. He didn't know where he was. What was going on? Wally whimpered again, but it was for a different reason this time. His father had managed to get a grip on Wally's arm, tightening the fist when Wally started squirming._

 _Taking in harsh breaths, Wally stared at his father with dull, lifeless green eyes. He remembered getting struck by lightning and he remembered the blinding_ horrible _pain that had accompanied it, but for a moment there, he'd been happy. It had hurt, but it was an escape. For one brief second, he'd truly believed that this was an act of God, finally answering his prayers and setting him free from his father. Apparently not, though. Apparently it was just a freak accident and there isn't any sort of divine being watching out for him. Not that Wally would blame Him. The redhead wasn't really worth helping anyways._

_Rudolph West grabbed at the IV and pulled it out, immediately making a grab for a few other things that were attached to the previously comatose child. The man didn't try to let Wally walk on his own, simply opting to pick him up fireman style and tell him that he better not talk or else. Wally squeezed his eyes shut as the world tilted and spun around him. He didn't feel so good. He knew better than to tell his father that, though._

_Somehow, Rudy got the two of them out of the hospital without being noticed. Wally wasn't entirely certain how he pulled it off – he was too busy trying not to be sick all over his father's back that he hadn't bothered paying attention to what was going on._

_He did start paying attention, however, when he was unceremoniously dumped onto the hard metal of an empty moving truck. Eyes wide, but still dull and broken, Wally glanced at the group surrounding him. There were men all around him and they were sneering at him, gazes sharp and terrifying. Wally started to shake in his spot. What was this? What was going on? For a brief second, Wally's eyes landed on Rudy's, but the emerald orbs skittered away after that brief second, already terrified of being punished for looking him in the eyes. Rudy's eyes were just like those of the other men._

_One of the older men – with grey hair and dark eyes – started reaching towards Wally. There was something in his hand. It almost looked like a dog collar of sorts with a big electronic box on the clasp. The hand got closer and closer before settling around Wally's neck and –_

Wally woke up gasping, his hands already held protectively in front of his throat. Letting out a few more pathetic pants, Wally leaned against his headboard, rubbing his throat softly. He'd never wanted that particular memory dredged back up again. That was awful. He wondered why that nightmare came to him now of all times. Maybe it was because of Flash putting on the inhibitor collar earlier. Maybe it was because Wally was going to tell the other Rogues about his past tonight. Maybe. Maybe not.

Wally stood up and took a deep breath. He pushed the nightmare out of his mind and started making his way down to the training deck. He was determined to make the most of this day, bad start or no.

LLLLLL

Luthor watched as Vandal Savage raised one bushy eyebrow in irritation, "I believe the Light decided to use the  _Rogues_  in our future plans. I was not aware that the Rogues had been reduced to a single teenaged metahuman." The rest of the group tittered in agreement. Luthor felt the urge to let his lips twitch into a smirk, but now wasn't the time for that. He needed to appear sympathetic to their words right now, not confident in his plan. That would come later.

"I believe the Light decided that I would be in charge of obtaining the Rogues for our future plans. Trust me, everything is going exactly the way I want it to." Luthor said, eyes glittering through the cameras that linked their group together.

"How is obtaining one eighth of the targeted number of criminals according to plan?" The Brain asked, his voice grating lightly on Luthor's nerves.

The man being practically interrogated by his own group decided that then was the moment to let his smirk out. His lips curled and his eyes grew colder, "I have been working with Ra's al Ghul and Klarion to get this plan to work correctly. If you'll kindly inform the others of what you've discovered, Ra's al Ghul." He gestured to the weathered man, smirk still gently in place. Luthor was well aware that Savage wasn't overly fond of him, so he was determined to make his pawns speak the plan. At least then the idea could be put into the group without a negative bias.

Ra's al Ghul nodded formally to Luthor and then began talking, "I have received the most recent report from the mole. It has been over a month since I was last able to get information from them due to unforeseen circumstances. I have learned that Momentum – the speedster the Rogues are using – is also a criminal informant to the Red Arrow. He has supplied the hero with the research Grodd was given and he has helped the Red Arrow to bring down another criminal. This Momentum also had the intelligence and skills necessary to break the Rogues out of the Watchtower. Momentum plans to work as a mole for the Justice League through the Red Arrow. He intends to spy on us from within."

Queen Bee's perfectly styled eyebrows rose and she cut a scathing glance in Luthor's direction, "And you believe it to be a good idea to bring this speedster into the Light? Even knowing that he is a spy?"

Luthor leaned forward, "I plan to use him as a double agent. How easy would it be for him to feed the Justice League false information? We could have traps waiting where they believed they would be setting a trap for us."

Savage sounded bored, "Everything that has been said leads me to believe that this boy wants to be a  _hero_  more than he wants to be a villain. Why would he double cross the hero he has tied himself to?"

"Why wouldn't he? Who wouldn't betray someone who betrayed them first?" Luthor asked, leaning forward.

Klarion perked up in his seat, "That's where I come in! I  _finally_  got that spell to work."

Ra's al Ghul interrupted, "Due to  _my_  assassins planting bugs in the safehouse the Rogues are currently hiding in, I was able to find out that Momentum plans to inform the Rogues of his criminal informant tendencies."

Klarion threw himself back into the conversation, "And once  _my_  spell goes into effect, Momentum will be totally convinced that the Rogues have abandoned him. He'll be devastated. Completely shattered." Luthor was amused by the way the two of them fought each other to be recognized as the most useful to the plan. Both had argued against it when he'd first suggested it.

Queen Bee butted in, "This has nothing to do with splitting Momentum and Red Arrow."

The Brain added, "Nor does it have to do with gaining the other operatives of the Rogues."

Luthor raised a hand, "Patience, my friends. Allow me to explain fully. Ra's al Ghul's bugs will tell us when Momentum is telling the other Rogues about his heroic activities. That night, Klarion will enact his spell. Momentum will believe he has been abandoned. He will go to Red Arrow next, once again feeling abandoned. He'll be split from both the Rogues and the Justice League. All we have to do from there is make him feel useful. He won't want to feel wanted anymore – that certainly didn't get him anywhere. So we use him. We make it blatantly obvious to him that we're using him."

Savage growled in annoyance, "This still doesn't get us the Rogues. Don't dawdle around the point,  _Luthor_."

Irritation slanted through Luthor's eyes for the briefest moment, but he was sure the immortal had seen it. Inwardly seething, Luthor continued explaining his plan, "We minimize contact between Momentum and his team. Through that, we make it obvious that Momentum refuses to leave. The Rogues will join to try to get him back. Then, it is simply a matter of a little blackmail. In the end, we have a double agent and the entire Rogues team to fight the Young Justice League. What better solution could there be?"

There was a long pause before Savage responded, "…I see your point. We leave you in charge then." Savage had definitely seen the irritation Luthor had accidently allowed to slip through because the immortal smirked at him, carefully concealed malice in his own eyes. Lex Luthor had his own agenda, one he was determined to manipulate others into completing for him. For a long time, he hadn't thought that Savage's own agenda would be a problem, but now he was starting to rethink that theory. Maybe it was time that Luthor decided to dig a little deeper into Vandal Savage and his motives.


	17. The Past

LLLLLL

The group had come to the general consensus that they were going to wait it out. None of them wanted to be the one that pushed Wally into not trusting them and, if they pushed him too hard for his story, then there was a good chance that he wouldn't trust the Rogues anymore. That didn't mean that they weren't all dying of curiosity. It took all of Len's willpower to keep himself from snapping at Wally to just get on with it and tell them. It was obvious that he had some pretty big secrets because of how terrified he was when he decided he was going to tell them. Then again, the kid's definition of 'bad' was very different from their definition. The kid seemed to think that practically anything was bad as long as he was involved. Obviously, that was wrong. Len just had to get that through to the stubborn kid.

Speaking of, the newest addition to the Rogues wandered down the stairs late in the morning, like usual. Honestly, Len wasn't even sure it was possible to sleep that late. Wasn't there something that stopped people from doing that? Evidently not with teenagers. Len smirked into his coffee, remembering the first teenager they'd picked up. James had been… he'd been trouble, honestly. There wasn't a lot that he did that didn't end up with someone in jail and someone else in the hospital. He didn't do it on purpose, of course, but still. It was a mess.

And getting all the others to deal with that? A nightmare. They'd had to muddle through pages and pages of contracts and other various legal things that they didn't understand and didn't trust lawyers to explain to them. The amount of time and research that went into the adoption papers alone were awful. The Flash had even come to their door, concerned at how little criminal activity they were participating in. Then there was all of the medical papers they'd had to get through. Deciding on the perfect mental health facility for James was one of the hardest decisions Len had ever had to make. He and the other guys had then had to do tons of research to figure out what each of the drugs the doctors prescribed James was going to affect him. Again: nightmare. But, eventually, they got the hang of it. The Rogues figured that they could do this. They could handle this teenaged bundle of joy and insanity.

Then they'd run into Hartley. He'd been a whole different bundle of horrors. Hartley was the stereotypical spoiled teenager. He was a brat who didn't listen to orders and seemed to be determined to be contrary. It took the Rogues a long time to realize that Hartley was doing it to protect himself. He was, for lack of a better phrase, testing the waters. At the time, he'd still gone home to his parents at night, but he spent most of his non-school days at one of the Rogues safehouses. It took the Rogues  _weeks_  to realize that Hartley had been trying to figure out what kind of mask to wear around the Rogues. He tested their boundaries and figured out what would irritate them enough to scold him. He was slowly crafting the perfect teammate for the other Rogues to see.

With Hartley, the Rogues didn't have to struggle through double meanings and small print like they had with James. With Hartley, the Rogues had to struggle through mazes of mental walls and cold shoulders to make the rich teen realize that he didn't have to escape to his music to feel safe. He could escape to them to feel safe, too. Len wasn't sure that Hartley ever really believed that until the day Mick had slammed a stack of papers in front of Hartley and grunted, "Sign this if you want." They were adoption papers. That was one of the few times Hartley let himself cry in front of the team.

Wally, though. Wally was, predictably, his own new slew of problems. Even though the Rogues had become more proficient at dealing with teenagers, they'd also realized that all teenagers were very, very different and that they really shouldn't have any sort of expectations from the teen they took in. But then, the Rogues had never planned on taking  _any_  teenagers in. The plan was to have a group of criminals that shared a living space for the sole purpose of being convenient. The group was meant to make it so they could actually hold their own against the Flash and so they could escape jail when they were inevitably captured. Forging a messed up family from a bunch of broken, un-trusting criminals was not part of the plan. Neither were teenagers.

So, yeah, the Rogues had made a lot of mistakes with all of their teenagers, but that didn't make the mistakes any easier to handle. Len remembered the utter  _panic_  when Wally had run off. That had been bad. That had been really, really bad.

But they hadn't known that he was going to react like that. It was obvious that there was something in his past that made him fear failure. Something that made him fear being useless. It was like Wally saw himself as an object for people to use and misuse as they saw fit. It was like he didn't even recognize his own emotions and the fact that he deserved happiness. On some late nights where the older Rogues drank together and watched television, they'd thrown around ideas about what might have happened to the kid to make him think about himself like that, but they'd never talked too seriously about it. It hurt too much to talk about it seriously.

It especially hurt because all of them had been there in some way or another. Len had gotten the snot beaten out of him all the time. Mark and his brother had been conned and beaten by bigger criminals all their lives until Clyde died and Mark became the Weather Wizard. Mick was mercilessly bullied at school, eventually even being shut into a meat locker where he would have died had the janitor not found him half dead hours later. Sam had been taken advantage of and verbally torn down by the people who worked with him at the mirror factory. Digger's stepfather tormented him as a child and eventually drove him out of Australia. James's mother was a no good drunk and the boyfriends she brought home weren't all that nice to James either. Hartley was constantly ignored and belittled at his home by his parents. So the Rogues understood trauma. They understood the particular brand of self hatred that came with being abused in some way or another.

Sighing and tipping his head back, Len took another swig of the drink in his hand. Wally had heated up the breakfast sandwich and breakfast burrito Mick had made him and had brought the plate into the living room there the rest of the Rogues were gathered around the TV. It was all rather domestic honestly.

Of course, there were little things that made it very obvious that they weren't a normal family. Hartley was curled up on the ground with his laptop on the coffee table, but he was researching the effects of dog whistles on various parts of the human brain. Digger was slouched in the recliner, but he was idly sharpening a boomerang. James was in his dog bed (Len had protested buying the kid that, but James had given him such a sad look that Len couldn't help it even if he felt weird letting his kid sleep in something like that) fixing a little kink in his anti-gravity boots. The fact that Wally ate both the sandwich and the burrito in less than three seconds didn't help. They certainly were a messed up group.

At the moment, though, that didn't matter to Len because he recognized the look on Wally's face. He wanted to tell them something but wasn't sure how to go about it. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the moment that Wally finally opened up to them. The other Rogues were already prepared for it. They would let Wally talk himself out and then they'd give him some time by himself to adjust to the fact that he told them and then, the next day, they were going to give him the adoption papers. They already had them drawn up and ready to go. All they needed now were some signatures from Wally and a way to track down his aunt and uncle. They'd need to sign him over to the Rogues too. It would be perfect. Len's lips almost curled into a smile at the thought. Almost.

All attempts by his lips to form a smile were dashed to pieces, though, as knocking sounded at the door. If this was the Flash again…

"Yo! Rogues! It's the Flash, can you let me in?" Flash called out, knocking on the door again. Len pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a weary exhale. That man. He was determined to make their lives difficult, wasn't he?

Mick rolled his eyes and went to go open the door. Len turned his attention back to the newest teen Rogue, but what he saw there made his lips go tight with concern. Wally looked terrified. There was something vulnerable and scared and worried on his face that made Len want to get up and hug him and shield him from the world. Had that expression been there before the Flash came knocking, or was it the Flash himself that caused that expression? The Rogues all knew that Wally had some sort of beef with the Flash even if they didn't understand it. All the kid had said was that Flash did something to him long ago and didn't remember Wally enough to know what he'd done to him. It was incredibly vague and just another mystery to add to Wally's considerable collection of mysteries. Of course, those mysteries were probably about to be solved before the Flash showed up.

Speaking of the Flash, the older speedster sped into the room. When he stopped, his eyes were on Wally only, "W- uh… Momentum. Can we speak privately for a moment?"

"What's there to talk about?" Wally asked. Len noticed that the teen had turned away so his back was to the Flash and there was no way for the blonde man to see his face. Wally always had made sure that the Flash couldn't see his face. Apparently he didn't want to be recognized.

Flash seemed to realize that too because he said softly, "I already saw your face, Momentum. I know who you are. Now can we speak privately?"

Hartley reacted before Wally could (surprisingly enough), standing up and blocking the hero's view of the younger speedster, "Anything you want to say to him, you can say to us. Besides, why should we trust you? You've shown that you're not afraid to arrest us in our own homes." Len's eyes hardened as he remembered that little tidbit. He had  _not_  been pleased when he found out that Barry had taken advantage of the Rogues' trust in him in order to get to Wally.

Mick grunted, "Yeah. What he said." Len had the sudden urge to roll his eyes. It was honestly a wonder to him that someone so similar to a Neanderthal managed to survive in today's world.

James nodded vigorously, "You were mean! Mean people don't get to be alone with Momentum! Meanie!" He stuck his tongue out for good measure.

Sam didn't stand up, or even look up from the funnies section in the newspaper, but he still said, "In front of us, or not at all."

"Don' think ya're gonna get us again that easy! We won' fall for ya's trap again!" Digger said, boomerang held threateningly in one hand.

"Boys, boys," Len interrupted, "As much as I am of the same mind as you that we shouldn't trust Central's…  _hero_  with our youngest, I'm afraid that it's not our decision to make. Momentum can talk privately with him if he so wishes, or the two of them can have their conversation here. Momentum?" He only just barely caught himself from saying Wally instead of Momentum. The Flash said that he knew who the ginger speedster was, but Len didn't want to risk that being a bluff.

Wally had been looking at the group with wide-eyed wonder, obviously still shocked that they would do something like that for him, but at Len's words, he seemed to come back to himself, shaking his head slightly. He deflated a little, taking in a deep breath before saying, "I was planning on telling you guys this anyways, so… we'll have the conversation. Here. With you guys." The rest of the group nodded at him, inordinately pleased that he was willing to open up with them. Also, they were still really curious as to what Wally wanted to tell them about himself.

The Flash glanced at the Rogues again before seemingly deciding that he was going to practically ignore their existence. He sat on the couch next to Wally (the rest of the Rogues  _twitched_  with the need to remove him from his close distance to their youngest, but they resisted) and swallowed slightly, "The Justice League still wants to keep you guys safe from the Light, so I wanted to get this out of the way before I tried to convince you to come back with me to HQ…. You knew who I was. When you were panicking, you accidently called me by my real name and then you admitted that you knew a lot about me. When Green Arrow pulled off your cowl and I saw your face… I realized why you knew all that about me." Len tried to keep a mask of indifference on his face. Wally knew who the Flash was? He'd known this entire time and he hadn't bothered to say something about it? By the way the young speedster was sneaking glances at Len, this was at least one of the things that Wally was so concerned about them knowing. Len resolved to not make a big deal about it – even if he was itching to at least comment on it.

There was a moment of silence as the two speedsters just stared at each other. There was a lot of pain in their eyes, but there was a lot of determination too. Whatever it was that had occurred between the two of them, they were determined to get through it.

As the moment stretched too long, however, James tilted his head to the side and said, "Why does Momentum know all that about you?"

The Flash glanced to the side at Wally, as if asking for permission. Wally bit his lip before nodding and then returning the Flash's look back at him. The Flash shrugged before nodding. Len didn't understand what sort of silent conversation they had together, but it was obviously important. The Flash turned himself a little bit so he was facing more towards the Rogues than Wally, "Momentum knows all about who I am because… because he's Wallace Rudolph West." Len raised his eyebrows. Huh, so the Flash knew more about Wally's background than the Rogues did. And then the Flash continued, "He's Wally West. My nephew."

For a long moment, there was nothing but stunned silence. Even Len found himself blown away. This was… not expected. Wally had  _known_  that he was the  _Flash's_  nephew for the entire time that he'd been a part of the group? And he hadn't thought to tell any of them? Len struggled briefly to get his emotions under control. Wally had warned them that they wouldn't like the secrets he had to share. He'd warned them and the group had decided that they were completely willing to listen to it and not judge him for anything he had to say. He knew who the Flash was and he was the nephew of the Flash. That was okay. The Rogues could deal with that. They  _would_  deal with that. For Wally. For the poor, abandoned, heartbroken kid who they swore to protect.

Surprisingly, it was Sam who spoke first, "So you're his uncle, huh? The same guy that you didn't want to see you in that ice cream place?" He directed his second question at Wally who paused, glancing over at the Flash before nodding. Sam's face hardened as he turned to face the Flash again, "I don't know what you did that upset Wally so much, but whatever it was, don't think that we'll just let you get away with it! Why would you let some kid go live on the streets by himself? He said he lived with you – what kind of guardian are you?" The Flash looked stricken, shock causing his mouth to fall open a little.

Wally wrinkled his nose, "It's not all his fault. I've come to accept that now. It was my and my dad's fault that led me to the situation you found me in."

"It wasn't your fault, Wally!" The Flash said, expression earnest. Len had the feeling he was trying to make up for lost time. He wasn't sure if it was working or not.

Wally's mouth twisted and he turned his head to the side, "Whatever." That was his defensive mechanism kicking in. Len's own mouth twisted into a scowl at the thought that Wally felt the need to be defensive in this situation. The Rogues told him that they wouldn't care. They told him that they'd keep him and continue to trust him. He had no reason to get defensive.

Len finally spoke, "What happened?"

"My dad was a drunk who abused me pretty much my entire life. My mom just watched. It took me a really long time to realize that there was even something wrong about that. It was all I'd ever known. And then my mom left and my dad locked me in a closet for a couple of days. He was sent off to rehab – not jail because they couldn't prove that he was abusing me and, well… I was too scared to say anything about it. They sent me to live with Uncle B – with my aunt and uncle. That was great for a while, but then my dad came out of rehab and he acted enough to fool everyone into believing that he'd done a complete one-eighty on his attitude. So… they sent me back to live with him. Apparently they checked up on me through the following months, but I never actually saw them and dad never told me they were checking up on me. I felt so abandoned by them. I thought they had just thrown me away because they realized that I wasn't good enough and that I belonged there with my dad. Then, I was struck by lightning. I was hospitalized for months. When I woke up… my dad smuggled me to some guys. They put an inhibitor collar on me and beat me up…" Wally trailed off. The next part was obviously difficult to talk about.

The room was in a state of shock. Various Rogues were staring at Wally with their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide. The Flash's face shut down. His tightly clenched fists started shaking – no, vibrating – the same way Wally's did when he was upset. The Flash spoke through clenched teeth, his voice shivering in his throat, "Who? Who did your…  _father_  give you to?"

Len felt his eyes go wide even as the rest of the Rogues sucked in sharp breathes. The Rogues and the Flash had a pretty amiable relationship, all things considered. So they'd never seen him mad before. They'd never had the misfortune of seeing that terror. Len wondered idly if Wally would look like this when he was well and truly angered too, or if the Flash was just that terrifying in his own right, speedster powers aside.

Wally shook his head resolutely, "It doesn't matter. That's over and done with. They… they taught me there. They had a qualified homeschool teacher with them who got me through my last couple years of high school. When I graduated… they were distracted that night. I took everything I could with me and I ran. I ran and found myself on the streets of various cities around the world. Eventually, I made it back here, to Central. This was the longest I've stayed in one city since I started running. There's just something about Central…" Len could understand that. It was why the Rogues never moved on to another city. They could easily find somewhere without a hero and start raiding that until a hero inevitably showed up and they found somewhere else to rob blind. It wouldn't be hard at all for them to completely pick up and go, but they didn't. Because there was just something about Central. Len knew by looking around the room that everyone felt the same way.

Flash forcibly calmed down, the little sparks of lightning petering off until he looked normal again (well, as normal as someone in spandex  _could_  look), "So they're still out there? Is your  _father_  with them?" The venom with which he said the word father was quite frankly impressive. Len didn't know if even he'd be able to put that much venom into a word.

Wally shrugged, "I don't know. He was when I left. I don't know what it was that he provided them with other than getting me to them in the first place. He's a useless, no good worthless drunk who will never affect the world in any capacity so it wasn't like he was actually contributing to what they were doing. So they might have kicked him out once I ran. I haven't seen them since then."

The Flash frowned, "The Justice League will find them and make sure that they don't hurt anyone ever again, okay?"

Len cut in, "The  _Rogues_  will find them and make sure they don't hurt  _you_  ever again, alright Wally?" He sent Flash a glare.

The Flash hesitated a moment before saying, "Alright, I'll accept that. The Rogues will protect you. You know, you're good together. The bunch of you. It somehow works. But Wally, please know that the Justice League  _would_  protect you if you needed it."

"… I'm not sure I can believe that." Wally said, "I haven't had the best of interactions with the Justice League."

"C'mon, kid. The Justice League loves you! They'd totally do this for you!" Flash said, obviously trying to put some good humor into the serious moment.

Wally raised an eyebrow, "The Justice League loves me? Sure. I believe that."

"At the very least, Green Lantern loves you. Although he was embarrassed by it, he was pretty impressed with the marbles and the boxing glove thing. He'd like to meet you officially. The rest of you guys have already officially met my two best friends: Green Arrow and Green Lantern."

"You seem to have some sort of thing going on there, Flash. Something about green turns you on, then, huh?" Mick wiggled his eyebrows at the Flash. It was honestly embarrassing to even witness.

The Flash stuttered, "N-no! That is not it at all! I am completely faithful to my beautiful wife and am not turned on by the color green!"

Hartley shook his head in disappointment, "Do you realize how weird that sounds?" The rest of the group laughed. Len settled back into his seat. This was how things were supposed to go. This was the friendly banter the Rogues had with their hero. All of that serious talk and Wally's hatred of the Flash had been putting off these kinds of moments for far too long.

With a small smirk, Len leaned forward in his seat and interjected his own snide comment. Flash's squawk of indignation was completely worth it if only to see the small smile on Wally's face because of it.

WWWWWW

It was later in the afternoon when Uncle Barry finally left. He gave them all his blinding smile and a promise that the Justice League were going to make sure that no one (more specifically, the Light) came and stole the Rogues while they were sleeping and then he was off, running into the afternoon sunlight with a burst of lightning and dust. Wally wondered if he was going to his home to tell Aunt Iris about it. He wondered if they'd sit in that old, pale yellow sofa with the phenophthalien stain on the middle cushion; maybe they've already gotten rid of it. Wally wondered what it would be like going back to that house and seeing his aunt and uncle again face to face instead of in costume.

Len's voice broke through his thoughts, "Was that everything you meant to tell us?"

Wally inwardly flailed a little bit. No, that was not everything he'd meant to tell them, but they seemed so comfortable and okay with the things he had already told them that he didn't want to break something else to them. He especially didn't want to throw his whole criminal informant deal onto them when they were calm and happy. But… he'd promised himself that he was going to tell them everything. Wally bit his lip and said, "No. There's one more thing – well, two more things, but one of them really isn't all that important and it's not actually bad. At least, I don't think it's bad. Hopefully it's not bad."

Mark rolled his eyes, but still sounded patient when he said, "Wally, you're rambling. I'm sure it's not bad. Why don't you tell us and find out?"

Wally nodded. Right. He could do this. He started, "So, when I went running that first time where Len caught me and told me that I just need to let someone know that I went running. That time. I met someone there. He calls himself Freddie, but I don't know his real name. He doesn't know mine either. He gave me his phone number and he's kind of become my best non-family friend ever. We've only seen each other one other time, but we text a lot and play online video games together and stuff." Wally shrugged, feeling self-conscious.

Hartley grinned lecherously, "Ooh… Wally's got himself a boyfriend!"

Wally's face heated up and he glared at Hartley, "I do not!"

"Do too!" Hartley shot back.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do no-," Wally tried to say.

Len cut him off with an impatient, "Shut up. That's annoying. Alright, you have a random friend that you know little to nothing about who knows little to nothing about you. I have zero problems with that. The rest of you?"

Everyone called out some sort of negative and Wally felt something in his chest unclench. They were okay with that. They were completely fine with Freddie. Wally wasn't sure what that was so important to him. Of all the secrets that were being revealed this night, the one about Freddie shouldn't be even the slightest bit of concern. Then Wally realized that he wasn't really afraid about them disliking the idea of him texting someone who he didn't really know. He was afraid of them disliking Freddie. He was worried that they wouldn't approve of the actual person, not the method of the growing friendship. But they were fine with not only the method, but the person too. Wally grinned at them goofily.

Then Sam prodded gently, "And the other thing you wanted to tell us?"

That wiped the grin off of Wally's face rather easily, causing him to pull a lip in between his teeth again. He chewed on it gently before starting to talk, "I know you won't like this one."

Digger interrupted him, "Why don' ya wait and see before comin' to judgements like that?"

Wally sent him a droll stare, "This thing is really bad. I  _know_  you won't like it."

Len sighed loudly, "Just tell us already, Wally." There was a thin threat of irritation, but Wally had spent enough time with the Rogues to be able to read further into that: Len wanted the conversation to move on before Wally talked himself out of it.

"Okay, if you say so." Wally started. He took a deep breath and then another just to be on the safe side, "I am a criminal informant for the Red Arrow. I've helped him catch a murderer and gave him information on Grodd and the Light."

For a long, long,  _long_  moment, no one said anything. No one even moved. Then Wally realized that he'd accidently sped up his perception in his anxiety. He was always doing that when he got freaked out about something. Taking some more deep breaths, Wally willed his heart to beat slower and his mind to back up and start perceiving things at a more normal speed. It took another long moment for things to slow down all the way, but he kind of wished it had taken longer.

Now that he was back at normal speed, he couldn't say it was his powers getting out of control that caused the unnatural silence and frozen expressions of shock. Wally licked his lips slightly and tried to swallow to get some moisture back in his mouth, "Guys? Can you say something? Please?" He wasn't proud of the way his voice cracked on the last word like he was a kid going through puberty again.

Apparently the voice cracking worked, though, because that seemed to snap the rest of them out of it. Len sounded strangled when he asked, "Since when?"

Wally winced a little and whispered, "Since I ran away that first time. He found me in the alleyway before the Flash did and convinced me to be his criminal informant. Since I had basically decided to leave you guys for good, he figured that I wouldn't have any food source or a place to sleep so he said that he could help me out with that and I could be his criminal informant. When you guys made me realize that I was still a part of you, I just… didn't cut it off with him."

Hartley's voice was just as soft as he asked, "Why?" Wally glanced at him, not quite understanding. Hartley clarified, "Why didn't you cut it off with him?"

"I… I like stealing things. James was right that first day when he said that I couldn't possibly know how much I would enjoy stealing for fun until I tried it. I love being a villain. I love being a  _Rogue_ , but… sometimes it's nice to help people. It's nice to know that I'm doing something that will make the world a little safer for people." Wally paused before adding, "Part of our deal is that I won't ever give them anything incriminating on you. He never expects me to betray my family." He paused again, finishing out in a low voice, "Well, if… if you still… want to be my family?"

Sam's reaction was immediate, "Of course we do! We told you that we weren't going to leave you behind like some piece of trash just because of some things that you haven't told us yet. Mind – this is going to take some getting used to and we'll definitely need to talk about this, but we won't just dump you." He said it so firmly and with such determination that Wally couldn't help but believe him.

Len's voice held a note of finality when he said, "It's getting late. We'll all sleep on this and discuss it tomorrow morning. Is everyone alright with that?" That was one of the things about the Rogues that Wally loved the best: the vast majority of the time, decisions were made as a family. There were some things that Len put his foot down for as the leader of the group, but normally they decided things together.

Wally nodded, watching the others around him nod as well. Hartley raised a hand and said, "We'll have to talk about it tomorrow afternoon. James and I are going on that heist tomorrow morning, remember?" Wally had forgotten about that, honestly. The group was done with being kept from heists due to either Zoom's presence or the Justice League's intervention, so they'd decided that it was time to get back into the game. Hartley and James were going to pull the first one, nicking something a couple of cities over. They would leave early, early in the morning and get back mid to late afternoon. It was some semblance of normalcy. And normalcy is what they needed right now. The Rogues all looked as emotionally exhausted as Wally felt. Yes, this was a lot to get off his chest and yes, the stress of what the Rogues were going to think near about killed him throughout the day. But the Rogues had a lot of info dumped on them in a short amount of time. This was hard for them, too.

So the Rogues dispersed, heading off to their various rooms and settling into bed, a few half-hearted goodnights called down the hallways and up the stairs. Len was the only one who stayed seated in the living room, fingers steepled together and pressed against his brow. Wally wanted to tell him that he should go to sleep too, but bed was calling to him and he was already unsure of what Len thought about the whole thing. He didn't want to make anything worse or something like that.

When Wally finally drifted off to sleep, it was to the earnest expressions of his family as they told him that they would never leave him.

When he woke up in the morning, they were all gone.


	18. The Spell

WWWWWW

Wally flew around the house in a panic. He was checking every nook and cranny for some sort of note or some sort of indication as to what happened. He called every number and worked through every line on the comms. There was no forced entry. There was no note. There was no response. They were just – gone.

Flitting around his mind was the persistent thought that the Rogues had left him because of what he told them yesterday. It had all been too much. They'd realized their mistake. They left the house as a giant hint for him to leave. They had probably already contacted Hartley and James and told them to go to a different safe house when they came back from their job so they wouldn't have to see him again.

Wally shook his head, hair flopping from side to side. That was wrong! He knew it was wrong! The Rogues wouldn't betray him like that. The Rogues weren't like that. They  _promised_ him that they weren't like that. For the first time in years, Wally had finally trusted someone other than himself to keep their promises. The Rogues would absolutely not break that promise. So where were they? Remembering last time, Wally grabbed out his phone and dialed the Flash's number. He didn't want to do this so soon after their heart to heart. He wasn't quite ready to face his uncle in a one on one situation, but the situation really needed it. As the phone rang, Wally reflected to himself that more had happened to him in the month and a half that he'd been with the Rogues than in the rest of his life combined.

Suddenly, there was a click and then, " _Hey, this is the Flash! Actually, that's a lie. This is a recording of me… by me. Anyways, yeah, I'm not available right now. There's either really important stuff going on right now, or I've lost my phone. Go ahead and leave a message though! I'll call back asap!_ "

Wally groaned in frustration, slamming his head against the wall. Was he for real? Where was he at a time like this? Wally's family was missing and he  _lost his phone_? Okay, to be fair, he could be in a world-ending situation, but he also could have just  _lost his phone_. He and Uncle Barry needed to have a talk about keeping important things like the Flash phone on hand.

What else could he do, though? He couldn't just run all over the place until he found them! Well, he could, but it would take a really long time. A really,  _really_  long time.

Pacing back and forth in his room, Wally glanced desperately around him for something,  _anything_ that could help him in this situation. His eyes lit up when he saw the innocuous black phone settled on his end table. He snatched it up and quickly navigated to his contacts (all two of them) before pressing the one that read 'Red Arrow'. He cradled the phone to his ear and resumed pacing, muttering to himself, "Pick up. Pick up. Pick up."

The ringing was lasting far too long and Wally was starting to despair of Roy ever picking up the phone. There was a click and Wally held his breath and then, " _Momentum? What's up?_ "

"Oh, Red Arrow. Thank goodness. Look, you work with the Justice League sometimes, right? Do you know if they've got the Rogues?" Wally asked in a rush.

Roy's voice sounded confused when he said back, " _No? Why would they be? Didn't you already pretty much convince the JL that kidnapping all but one of the Rogues is a bad idea?_ " There was a smirk in his voice by the end and, yeah, normally Wally would have been amused to, but this time it  _wasn't funny_. This was serious.

"Do you know where they could be, then? Or can you get in contact with someone who might know?" Wally threw back, his pacing quickly increasing until he had to slow down lest he literally wear through the floor.

" _Wally. You told them everything, didn't you?_ " Roy asked. There was something sad in his voice when he asked the question.

Wally's jaw clenched, "Why are you asking that? That had nothing to do with this situation! They were taken by somebody or something happened. They wouldn't leave me!"

Roy's voice was almost pitying when he responded, " _That's what they said and what you think, but those things don't always match up with what actually happens. No one connected to the JL has any info on where the Rogues could have gone. And the Light wouldn't have taken them because they already made that deal with you guys. Wally, I think they left you._ "

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! You don't know anything about this situation! I was obviously wrong to call you about it. Why would you even  _say_  that? You  _know_  how much this means to me." Wally called back, fingers clenching into fists so tight that his fingernails bit into his skin, breaking it and healing back again almost as quickly.

" _Yeah_ ," Roy responded, starting to sound a little snappish, " _I do know how much this means to you. That's why I'm telling you how I see it. And that's how I see it. Look, Momentum, you don't have to listen to me. I'm just telling you what makes the most sense based on the facts I have._ " There was a pause where Wally raggedly tried to breath and Roy seemed to be collecting his thoughts before, " _You know, even though you'll be working for the Light now, you're always welcome at my warehouse. I can try to spruce it up a little and make it a bit more comfortable. We can get you a bed. Stuff like that. I'll make sure there's always plenty of food. You don't have to go back to the streets._ "

"I don't have to go back anyways. Because the Rogues didn't leave me!" Wally shouted back before he ripped the phone away from his ear and jabbed angrily at the 'end call' button. His eyes were started to fill with useless tears and he was getting angry at himself. He was being such a weak loser about this! He could deal with the situation! He needed to stop getting so emotional over the stupidest things.

Taking several deep breaths, Wally tried to calm himself down, making sure that his heart rate lowered and his perception slowed down. It was okay. He could do this. Everything was going to turn out alright in the long run.

Finally feeling calm (at least, calmer than he was when he realized that the Rogues were missing), Wally thought about what steps to take next. The Justice League obviously didn't have them so there was no use trying to find another hero to get info from. So who else could potentially know where the Rogues were? Who else would care enough to know where they were?

The answer came almost immediately: the Light. They should know! They were the ones who were so focused on getting the Rogues, so wouldn't it make sense that they'd keep a close eye on them? The only problem was that there were still a couple of days left before the Rogues had to give the Light their decision (even though it was already made) and Luthor hadn't left them any way to contact the Light. It was apparently more of an "We'll contact  _you_ " kind of thing.

That wasn't going to work, though. Wally needed to contact them now. And he knew exactly how to.

It took him a little under three minutes to get from Central City to Metropolis. Wally didn't think he'd ever run that fast, but he didn't exactly have time to congratulate himself. He was on a mission and he would not be distracted.

Seconds later found him flying through security checks up to the highest levels of the LexCorp building. There was no one there. Then a giant screen flashed to life and Luthor's face filled it, smirking.

The recording started speaking immediately, "I had a feeling you might come here, but I was unable to meet you, unfortunately. The Rogues made their decision, Momentum. They already came to the decision that you would be the one who they would send to the Light. Last night, we were contacted by your leader, Captain Cold. He informed us that due to certain things that came to light about you, they felt it would be better if you were to find a place with the Light sooner rather than later." By the end of his little speech, Luthor's lips had pursed into an expression of pity. He honestly pitied Wally and, in that moment, there was nothing that Wally hated more.

Wally thought back to his phone call with Roy. Did the Rogues seriously do that? He remembered seeing Len still sat in the living room as the rest of them went upstairs for bed. He could have easily made the phone call moments after Wally had fallen asleep. But… they promised. They had sworn that they wouldn't do that to him. They said they wouldn't abandon him.

Wally cursed himself. How stupid was he? What did it matter if they promised or not? What did it matter how much he trusted them? What did it matter how well they kept their promises?  _He_ was involved. Of  _course_  they left. He screwed everything up and now look at him. He was wandering all over the place like some lost puppy.

Luthor's recording started talking again, "Your first assignment is simple. Protect Klarion the Witch Boy while he works his spell. Do not let anyone disrupt it. The Young Justice League will likely be sent to go deal with Klarion. Make sure they don't succeed. Now, you might think that you cannot go up against all those young heroes with the amount of training you have. Klarion will still be able to help a little bit, even as he's performing the spell. Also, his familiar will be there to help protect you and Klarion. These are your coordinates." Numbers flashed on the screen and Wally took a moment to slow down time and memorize them. He sped up and Luthor's recording started talking again, "Failure to show up will result in the death of you and your former team. I look forward to hearing about your success." With that, the recording cut out and the screen went blank.

For a second, Wally froze. Luthor was wrong. Wally didn't think that he couldn't go up against the Young Justice Team. Wally  _knew_ that he couldn't go up against the Young Justice Team. It was an actual impossibility. The Light would realize how  _useless_  he was and they'd kick him out like everyone else had. Then where would he go? Maybe he could take up Roy on the offer of staying in warehouse. Or maybe he could try finding a place with Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris again. Then again, neither of those were really fair to the people he tried to live with. Honestly, he'd probably go back to the streets. At least there he had status quos he could follow. Maybe he'd use some of the tactics the Rogues had taught him and he'd buy himself a house to live in. That was a good idea. He liked that. Then it was just him alone where he couldn't hurt anyone by being himself.

Wally shook the thoughts off. They weren't useful right now. If he wanted to live, he had to at least show up to the place and  _try_. If he didn't, then the Light wouldn't be kicking him out; they'd be killing him.

So Wally did what he did best: he ran.

DDDDDD

Dick was panicking. Yeah, he was awesome at hiding it, but he was definitely panicking. He had been watching from the rafters as M'gann and Connor brought in the groceries as Zatara and Batman talked. Artemis and Zatanna had just walked in and then, bang! Batman and Zatara disappeared.

It didn't take the team long at all to figure out that  _all_  the adults had disappeared. It looked like there wasn't a single person over the age of eighteen in the entirety of the world. Which was a problem. An actually massive problem.

It was also a major test for the Team. Sure, they worked relatively independently of their mentors and they were their own team with their own problems and their own solutions, but there was always the option of backup. Now? Now there was no one to save them if they screwed up.

So, yeah. He was panicking. He felt completely justified for it too. Luckily, the Team was able to get a message out to the children around the world that told them that they were working on it and that the kids didn't need to worry. All they needed to do was look after each other for a little bit while they figured out how to fix the problem. Then he went and contacted as many teenaged heroes (and antiheroes and even, occasionally, some villains) as he could think of. He gave each of them a city: Wonder Girl went to Washington DC, Trickster and Pied Piper went to Central, the Teen Titans spread out across the coast of California, Solstice went to Los Angeles, Supergirl to Metropolis, Batgirl to Gotham. While he was doing that, Billy Batson (aka Captain Marvel apparently; who would have even gotten close to guessing  _that_?) showed up and helped the Justice League and the Young Justice League come up with a plan. It wasn't long before Zatanna performed the spell correctly and found the location of the spell that separated the adult world and the kid world.

Dick was feeling pretty good about the situation now that they had a plan. It wasn't foolproof and things could go wrong, but that was a lot of their missions. Those were the odds that Dick had been trained on. He could do this.

At least, that was how he felt until they showed up at the location to see that Momentum was standing in front of Klarion's pentagram. Guarding it. Because he's a villain. And apparently not at all the person Dick thought 'John' had been.

Artemis hissed through their mind link,  _Seriously? Why is_ he  _here?_

_I do not know, but we should be careful with him. None of us except perhaps Robin has trained against a speedster before,_ Aqualad sent back, something serious in his tone. Robin winced as he remembered Aqualad disappearing in a mass of lightning not that long ago.

Superboy cracked his knuckles,  _I can deal with him_.

_Maybe that's not the best idea. We need to get that familiar out of the way and we've all seen how big that thing can grow. I think Superboy's the best bet to deal with Teekl,_  Zatanna shock back as the group hovered in an invisible bioship.

Robin nodded in agreement and, after a moment of thinking, Aqualad does the same before sending out,  _Superboy will keep Teekl distracted. We cannot have that creature attacking us while we work. Miss Martian and Robin will keep Momentum distracted. Artemis, Zatanna, and I will deal with the crystal in the center of the spell. Artemis and I will act as backup to any group who finds themselves in need of our assistance. Are your roles understood? Good. Let us god._

And with that, they attacked.

Robin paid minimal attention to the other groups, choosing instead to listen for cries of help and focus on his own battle. Against someone who had rapidly become one of his best friends. Momentum didn't even know that Robin was Freddie! Momentum didn't even know how big of a betrayal his actions were. Gritting his teeth, Robin decided to channel that anger in a better fashion and started to attack.

He convinced Miss Martian to stay invisible and floating above the fight, occasionally hitting him with some telekinetically controlled objects while he distracted him from the ground. Robin managed to sneak up close and knock Momentum's feet out from beneath him, but Momentum's hand shot out and grabbed Robin's bo-staff before he could do anything. Using the leverage of Momentum's grip, Robin flipped over and landed in front of Momentum, immediately jabbing out with his fingers. He continued to try to hit or kick Momentum, but the speedster was, well, too speedy. Distraction tactics it was.

Robin called out at Momentum over the rushing wind of the battle, "Why are you helping them?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Momentum snarled back, predictably. The teen just couldn't let things go unanswered.

Robin said, "Why would you even want this spell to work?"

"I don't even know what the spell does! It doesn't matter! My job is to stop you guys from getting Klarion and that's what I intend to do." Momentum shot out, ducking under another sweeping arm. He stumbled when a branch slammed into his back, wincing and crying out softly in pain.

Jumping over a foot aimed for his knee, Robin threw his hands in the air, "How stupid are you? What made you think helping a spell that you don't even know the consequences of would be a good idea?" Robin warred with the idea of telling Momentum what the spell did. He wasn't sure how Momentum didn't know yet since it was plastered on every television and computer in the world by this point. He couldn't have missed all of those. Then again, the Rogues probably all disappeared this morning. If anything 'John' told Robin about his home situation was true, then Momentum would be freaking out right now. The only people who cared about him were missing now and he didn't know why. Making an educated guess, Robin questioned, "Why aren't you looking for the missing Rogues right now?"

That was enough to get Momentum off his game. He tripped over his own foot and stumbled, tumbling to the ground with another well-placed tree branch thanks to Miss Martian. Next thing the villain knew, he had on some handcuffs (and legcuffs courtesy of Robin's utility belt. Robin didn't have any inhibitor collars with him (what a shock, right? Robin, not having something in his belt. Batman would be so disappointed), so he had to make do with what they had on them at the moment. Miss Martian flew down to them, eyes big and concerned, "Will he be able to escape?"

"I'll watch him, Miss Martian. Go help the others. If I'm needed, then we'll just have to hope he can't run with his legs chained together." Robin responded, glancing and the teen sitting on the ground next to him.

Momentum's mouth was twisted into a scowl and there was a smudge of dirt high on one cheek. His suit had a few little tears in it from the battle and he was hunched in on himself as if terrified that Robin would beat him up or something. It kind of broke Robin's heart, actually. It was really depressing. Sighing, Robin leaned up against a tree next to the fallen speedster and said, "So, why aren't you looking for the Rogues?"

"Why should I be?" Momentum mumbled rebelliously.

Robin raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Maybe because they're your team and your family and you're kind of really useless without them. That might be part of the reason."

"I'm not useless without them!" Momentum growled.

Robin raised his other eyebrow disdainfully, "Your current position begs to differ."

Momentum turned his head mulishly to the side and sat in silence. Robin frowned at him, but chose to not comment. The rest of the team seemed to have the battle down. Superboy and Miss Martian were working flawlessly together on keeping Teekl contained away from the battle and the other three were getting progressively closer and closer to the gem, only momentarily put back by Klarion's attacks.

After a few moments of silence, Robin tried again, "Why join the Light?"

Momentum growled in annoyance, "Do you ever stop asking questions?" Robin fought the urge to smile fondly. Momentum was still just as good as ever at dodging questions. As the teen sat chained on the ground on the losing side of this battle, Robin started to feel his anger at the teen slip away. Momentum didn't know that he was Robin. Momentum didn't even know that he was Dick Grayson. There was no way that 'John' had befriended him maliciously.

After another moment, Momentum responded, "I'm better off with the Light. The Rogues don't want me anymore, so at least the Light will take me in. And they're powerful enough that I should be fine." He looked like he was going to say more, but at that moment, several things happened. Teekl grew even larger than before, knocking Superboy yards away and knocking Miss Martian out. Momentum threw something that hit Robin on the nose at sixty miles per hour (he later realized that the object that cut his forehead and broke his nose was an electromagnetic pulse device and that was how Momentum dismantled the electronic lock on handcuffs before manually picking them) before running over to go knock Artemis and Kaldur out of the way.

To be honest, he couldn't tell who he was fighting from one moment to the next. Everything was a blur of color and rushing figures and magic bolts and orange fur. He only really came back to himself when a great gold light flowed over the scene. Robin looked up with horror as he saw Nabu floating in the air, possessing Zatanna's body.

On the one hand, the problem is solved that much quicker. It isn't long after that that Doctor Fate destroys the gem and calls the worlds back together. For a moment, everyone stops. Robin sees the Flash's eyes (or the mask that covers them anyways) widen and the man took a step forward before saying, "Wally!"

Momentum – or Wally, apparently – froze and said back, "Sorry. Gotta run." He grabbed Klarion and Teekl and was gone before any of them could react.

Barry was after them a second later, but it wasn't long before he came back and said despondently, "They teleported away." Green Arrow and Green Lantern patted his back sympathetically.

In the long run, though, the group wouldn't have gone after Momentum, Klarion, and Teekl anyways. Zatara took on the mantle of permanently becoming Doctor Fate and there were more important things to worry about. The Team needed to comfort Zatanna and move her into the Cave. For a brief moment, they had the experience of being the only heroes in the world – the adults of the world and they'd had enough of that for now. The Justice League was back and, for the moment, the Team was content to leaving them to take care of the problem.

Still, though, Dick couldn't get the image of Momentum chained despondently on the ground. Dick had to help him.


	19. Red Arrow

HHHHHH

Hartley worried his bottom lip between his teeth, fingers pressing into his leg in the pattern of a song he loved to play on his flute. It normally calmed him down, but it wasn't working this time.

Len was in a rage and, although he was loathe to admit it and wouldn't ever say it out loud, Hartley was scared. When Len got mad, he did it the same way Hartley's mom did. Hartley's dad was the typical kind of angry parent: he went on screaming rampages that ended with flinching children and broken pottery and angry sulks for days on end. But Hartely's mom? Her rages were terrifying. She would go deathly quiet and her eyes would narrow, her mouth tightening fractionally at the corners. There would be deadly black ice in her voice whenever she deigned to speak to him. She never allowed any sort of emotion to break through that ice until she swooped in for the kill and her anger shattered the ice in her voice, creating a mind field of jagged frozen knives that cut deeper than any other weapon Hartley had known – it cut through his soul and made him hate himself in the way only parents could.

And now, now Len was doing that same thing. He hadn't quite reached the point of swooping in for the kill yet, but his voice was black ice and Hartley was just trying his best to not flinch back and scramble up to the relative safety of his room.

Hartley understood why Len was angry. He really did. And he knew that Len's anger wasn't directed at him. But that didn't really mean anything to his subconscious apparently. It didn't lessen his fear at all.

Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Hartley zoned back into the conversation. Len was saying, "There has to be  _somewhere_  he would have gone that would offer him some sort of comfort."

Sam's voice was tense too, but it wasn't with anger. Sam's voice sounded frustrated and sad and tired and a little bit scared too, "I've  _checked_  every  _single_  place we know he's frequented. Flash hasn't answered his  _worthless_ phone, but we left a message for him and he should – he  _better_  – answer it soon."

Len growled and Mick sighed, "Look, we're going to find him, alright? If you get too worked up, you're just going to cause problems. All you're doing right now is scaring the kids and working Sam to death. Get ahold of yourself."

The entire group froze for a moment and stared between the two men, dreading the inevitable confrontation. Unexpectedly (thankfully), Len didn't explode at Mick like they thought he was going to. Instead, he took in a deep breath to steady himself and let it out through his teeth before running an unsteady hand through his short hair. He sent Mick a meaningful look, "I'm impressed; you actually said something somewhat intelligent."

Mark settled back into his chair and scrubbed his face with his hands, "What are we going to do now? Who else could we possibly talk to?"

James's hand shot in the air and waved around like an excited puppy's tail. Len pinched the bridge of his nose as Digger 'called on' him. James beamed at Digger and said, "Speedy!"

Digger tilted his head in confusion, voice completely baffled, "Speedy  _what_?"

But Hartley's eyes had widened, "No, no, no. Not speedy something. Speedy. As in not Speedy anymore. As in Red Arrow. Aka the hero who's been using Wally as an informant." Hartley felt hope bloom in his chest. Finally! A lead! He ignored the voice in the back of his head that said that this whole problem was his fault anyways.

Mark's head shot up, "Yes! That would work!" He paused and then threw his head back to land in the plush comfort of the couch pillow, "Wait, no it wouldn't. We have absolutely zero way of contacting Red Arrow. None of us know a thing about him. And we know that Wally wouldn't have left anything relating to his CI job out where we could find it. He definitely didn't want us to know about  _that_  little tid bit."

Digger's voice was sharp when he said, "Ya sound like ya're blaming him."

"And you're not?" Mark asked before sitting up again to look at the rest of the group, "Can you seriously tell me that none of you are even the slightest bit miffed that he's been working for  _the other side_  for a good portion of the time he's been with us? I'm not saying that I'm irrevocably mad at him and I'm not saying that I'm not going to give him the chance to explain, but seriously? He betrayed us in the worst way possible. What's worse for a villain than to find out that they're family is a hero?"

"He's not some hero, Mark. He's not that bad." Sam said, voice firm. He continued, "I'm not 'miffed' at all. What did the kid do that went against what we stand for? He helped take down a murderer – we don't approve of killing. He gave out information about Gorilla Grodd's work with the Light – we all know that we hate the Light. They threatened us for God's sake! So, tell me. What did he do that went against what we stand for?"

"We're not some Robin Hood antiheroes or whatever!" Mark finally stood, glowering at Sam, "We don't steal from the rich and give to the poor! We steal from who we want when we want because we want to. We're villains through and through.  _That's_  what we stand for. And that's  _not_  what he was doing."

Len scowled, "Is this really the best time to have this argument, boys? I feel like this is something that Wally should be a part of. But he can't. Because he's  _currently missing_. Wake up and pay attention. This isn't about how we feel about his little revelations. This is about our kid alone somewhere, possibly in danger. Got it?" The inflection of his voice never changed and Len sounded completely calm and in control the entire time. That more than anything told the rest of the Rogues how freaked out he was. It also effectively killed the argument the two had been having.

Hartley decided to brave the conversation again, "So what are we going to do? How are we going to contact Red Arrow?"

Sam raised a tired eyebrow, "Anyone fancy a ton of long distance mirror dimension traveling?" The group groaned.

WWWWWW

Wally shifted in place, not really sure how this was going to go down. He was surrounded by heavy hitters. And he meant seriously heavy hitters. Luthor was big fry enough, but then there were people like Queen Bee and the Brain and Vandal Savage and Ra's  _freaking_  al Ghul. He'll say it again: seriously heavy hitters. These were the people who were crazy enough to keep challenging big name heroes like Superman and Batman and the  _entire Justice League_. Some of them were crazy enough to occasionally do stuff like that  _alone_. And Wally had just failed the mission they'd given him. Sure, Klarion the Witch Boy and his familiar Teekl or whatever hadn't been harmed, but he'd had to abandon the spell. He'd gotten his butt handed to him by a dark haired Bat and a team of tiny heroes.

Then Queen Bee smiled. She leaned forward and her projection waved a little bit with the movement, "Momentum." She purred, voice dark and dangerous, but amused too, "We are very pleased with your success in your first mission."

Wally couldn't help it; he snorted with incredulous laughter, "Are you serious? Me? What success? Because from my standpoint, that was definitely a failure."

"Hm," Ra's al Ghul mused, eyes dancing with something that looked like mockery, "You didn't mention that he was modest." Beneath that mocking shine in his eyes, though, there was something inherently  _curious_  in the eyes of the leader of the League of Assassins that made Wally want to flinch backwards and cower. He didn't want that man to be curious about him. He didn't need any more nightmares.

Luthor sounded almost like a proud parent showing off when he said, "Momentum is indeed a fine specimen. Did I not say that he would be perfect for this task?"

Vandal Savage's eyes glittered with amusement as he asked, "You didn't honestly believe that we were going to tell you everything that was going on right away, did you? We don't trust you. You are a tool to us and nothing more. While you were making sure that Klarion continued to hold the spell, we had other operatives gathering necessary materials for the next stage in our plan."

"I was a diversion. The whole spell was. Whatever it did, it got the heroes attention on Klarion so your other people could go get what they wanted." Wally muttered with dawning realization. His first mission wasn't a failure because he was never meant to succeed. He only had to hold off the heroes long enough for the other operatives to grab what they needed and jet and then he only had to make sure that Klarion wasn't arrested or anything. He had never actually needed to maintain the spell. The relief he felt at not having failed was dizzying. He'd thought earlier about just not quite doing well enough and getting kicked out of the Light, but face to face with all of these major players had made him think that he probably wasn't going to get kicked out. He was probably going to die. And he really didn't want to die.

Now, he most likely wasn't going to die. That was a plus. That was a  _really_ big plus. Wally frowned, "What do I do now? Do I have another mission, or what?" Mentally, he was thinking about ways to get to Roy's place without anyone being able to follow him or figure out where he was headed. He wanted to go ahead and give some info on the Light as a way to apologize for his rude behavior over the phone earlier that day.

Savage's voice was low and dangerous, but (luckily) still amused when he said, "What do you plan to do otherwise? Tell the Justice League about us?" Wally froze, eyes going wide underneath his mask. A smirk grew slowly across Savage's face, "Of course we knew about your tendency to stray towards the 'good' side, boy."

Luthor cut in smoothly, "What we don't know, is why? What loyalty do you hold to the Justice League that convinces you to go against your very nature?"

"It's not loyalty to the Justice League." Wally defended. His palms were getting sweaty and time was starting to slow down around him.

"Then with whom does your loyalty lie, Momentum?" Queen Bee asked, chin rising and eyebrow gliding upwards. Wally thought about her question. With whom did his loyalty lie? A day ago, he'd have said the Rogues in a heartbeat. Before that, the only people he gave his loyalty to were the people he trusted – namely, himself. Then again…

"Red Arrow." Wally announced. That, at least, was true.

The Light smirked at him and Wally had a feeling that they'd already known the answer to that question before he'd answered it. He had a feeling that they'd been planning on him answering that way. With a gesture of Ra's al Ghul's hand, one of the nameless assassins who'd been guarding the exits and entrances of the base Wally found himself in opened a door.

Buttery yellow light flooded into the room that was darkened for the projections of the leaders. A shadow filled the doorway and Wally squinted in order to get a better glimpse of whoever was there. What did this person have to do with the conversation?

That was made very apparent when the doors closed and the only light was, once more, the blue glow of the projection screens. The man's face came into sharp relief and Wally's breath caught in his throat, "Red Arrow."

Roy stood there silently, not responding in the slightest to Wally's breathless exhale. Luthor spoke first, "A while ago, the Light captured Speedy, aka Roy Harper. We kept him in a cryogenic sleep and we cloned him. You are looking at the product of that." Wally's eyes widened. The friend he'd been working with was a clone? Luthor continued, "We have programmed him to commit certain actions and achieve certain goals. He has all of the memories of the original Roy Harper and all of the same personality, but just a little bit more of the Light than the original had. Red Arrow has been spying on the Young Justice League and acting as an unwitting mole for their entire existence. That is all well and good, but we can't control him all the time. We need someone to feed the Justice League false information about us. That is where you come in."

Wally's head was spinning. He'd been inadvertently working for the Light this entire time? His voice didn't come out as strong as he'd wanted it to when he said, "I thought you wanted me to go against the Young Justice League."

Savage laughed, "And you think you are good enough to take on that task by yourself?"

Luthor continued gently, "That is what we have hired the Rogues for. Don't worry. We'll make sure your paths never cross. Are you prepared to take on this mission?"

The Rogues were going to be working for the Light as well? So having Wally join in their place really was just a way to get rid of him. They'd already been planning on joining the Light and Wally was just baggage they hadn't wanted. This was just the most convenient place to drop him off and leave him. Voice finally going strong, Wally said, "I'm prepared. What do I have to do?"

Ra's al Ghul took over, "You will be staying here until we no longer have use of you. There are others here as well who work for us. Cheshire will be your 'mentor' of sorts. She is most often used to activate Red Arrow's coding, so she is the most embroiled in this plot. She will show you where to go and when and she will be your contact with us. Do as she says. She will tell you anything else you need to know." And with that, all the projected bodies disappeared at once, leaving an instant darkness.

Seconds later, the lights came on and Wally blinked in the harsh white light, raising an arm to shield his eyes from it. When he lowered his arm, he rapidly backpedaled, barely holding in a curse. Directly in front of him was a woman in green with a terrifying mask. It looked like a Cheshire cat smiling. Oh. Wait. Cheshire. This was his mentor. Still rattled and definitely embarrassed about his actions, Wally ran a hand through his bright red locks, "Hey, what's up?"

Cheshire snorted, "You're such a dweeb. What the higher-ups didn't tell you is that I'm also in charge of training you. You're useless currently." She tilted her head to the side and Wally tried not to be offended. Then she spoke again, "Training starts now."

HOURS LATER

Wally collapsed into the bed of the room that had been pointed out as his own. He had his trusty backpack with him, but beyond that, nothing. Wally melted into the bed – even though it was quite possibly  _harder_  than a rock – and tried not to think about the picture of the Rogues that was still securely tucked into one of the pockets. He tried his hardest not to think about the family he'd left behind – the one who'd betrayed him. Instead he pushed his mind to relentlessly go over the information Cheshire had taught him today. He pictured himself standing in all of the different stances and going through all of the basic motions. The images cycled through his head on repeat. It was at least an hour later when he stopped forcing himself to remember.

Well, it was an hour until he looked at the clock and realized that three minutes had passed. Groaning, Wally slammed his head into the pillows, regretting the movement when it not only hurt his neck and shoulder muscles, but also made it feel like he'd just slammed his head into a block of concrete. Fantastic. Evidently all his memorizing had done was get him worked up – exactly what he was trying to avoid. He tossed and turned in the bed before realizing that there was honestly only one thing that could help him now.

Sitting up in bed (and wincing at the stretch of muscles that required), he reached over and grabbed at his limply hanging suit. He yanked it over to the bed and pulled out the burner phone, flipping easily to a number and started a text conversation.

_John (9:42pm):_

_Hey Freddie, what's up?_

_Freddie (9:42pm):_

_I was actually just about to text you. What would you think about meeting up sometime soon?_

Wally bit his lip. As awesome as that would be, he wasn't sure what his freedoms were like in this place. No one had said anything explicit about leaving or not leaving, but he was also relatively new and didn't want to get in trouble.

_John (9:43pm):_

_I'm sorry, but I can't. Things are kind of complicated right now._

_I'm not sure when I'll be able to hang out._

_Freddie (9:44pm):_

_That's okay. We can just talk I guess. What did you mean by complicated?_

_Is it anything I can help with?_

_John (9:45pm):_

_Nah, it's really nothing._

_Freddie (9:45pm):_

_Well that's a lie if I ever saw one. Come on, you can trust me._

_John (9:46pm):_

_I guess… That family I've been telling you about didn't really work out._

_I'm with someone new now and I'm not sure how this is going to work either._

_Freddie (9:46pm):_

_I thought you liked your family?_

_John (9:47pm):_

_I did! I mean… I guess I still do, but… I guess they didn't like me as much as I thought they did._

Wally frowned down at his phone. This was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. Somehow, though, it wasn't so bad when he was talking it out with Freddie.

_Freddie (9:47pm):_

_Have you talked to them about it or did you just cut and run?_

_In hindsight, that sounded ruder than I meant it to._

_I just meant that I don't think that they don't like you._

_You should really talk to them about it._

_You know that friend I was with in that restaurant? He has trouble with his adopted parents all the time and most of the time they've been able to just talk it out._

Wally winced as he read that. There was no way that Freddie would know that Roy was a clone. From what he'd heard,  _Roy_  didn't even know he was a clone. And now here his friend was, innocently trying to use his friend as an example. He didn't know that he was actually just reminding Wally of where he was and who he'd allied himself with.

_John (9:49pm):_

_Look, I appreciate the advice, but I don't think it's going to work that way._

_Freddie (9:49pm):_

_Why not?_

_John (9:50pm):_

_Because! Just because! Isn't that enough?_

_Freddie (9:50pm):_

_No, it's not! And you know it!_

_We need to meet up and talk face to face._

_I can go with you to talk to your family. Just don't give up on them!_

_Please, at least meet with me and we can have this very important conversation over something other than text. Okay?_

_John (9:54pm):_

…

_Okay. I'll try to find a time._

_Goodnight._

_Freddie (9:54pm):_

_Goodnight._

Wally set the phone back down and groaned. Great. How was he supposed to meet up with Freddie now? Who knew what kind of rules the Light had around this place? Well, Wally supposed, it wouldn't be that bad to just ask. Cheshire would most likely answer. If not, then she'd definitely pummel him for being 'cheeky' or something, but there was still a chance of an answer and that was all he really wanted. He wasn't going to go back to the Rogues, though. He'd been burned by them once and he wasn't going to repeat that experience.

But he'd talk with Freddie. He'd give him the chance to try to convince Wally because the red haired teen felt like he owed his friend that much at the very least.

Content in his decisions, Wally laid back in his bed and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come.


	20. To Fight

HHHHHH

Hartley shuddered, stomach clamping and throat convulsing a little bit. He  _hated_  traveling through the mirror dimension. It was actually one of the worst experiences he could think of. Especially long distance. That was even worse.  _Much_  worse.

Nevertheless, the entirety of the Rogues survived their trip over to Star City where they ran into their next problem. What now? They got to the right city, but that was no guarantee that they were going to just run into Red Arrow at some point or another. Captain Cold bustled through them, "Come on."

"Where are ya going?" Captain Boomerang asked, annoyed.

The look Cold sent him could only be described as scathing, "Where do you think? I'm going to go steal something. Reports say that Green Arrow and Red Arrow kind of have their own parts of the city. It's not definite and they end up all over the place on cases, but there are sides that they frequent. So if we commit a crime here on Red Arrow's side, then it makes sense that he'd be the one who came to stop us, right?"

"That… does make sense." Boomerang grudgingly agreed. The rest of the Rogues followed their leader into the night.

It wasn't long before they came across a closed jewelry shop that Cold deemed good enough for their mission. They wanted to make it obvious that supervillains were robbing the place so the hero would come and not the cops, so Cold iced the windows down and let Weather Wizard strike them with some carefully controlled hail. The windows shattered into thousands of tiny pieces and the group slunk in through the broken frames (well, except for Trickster who floated on through with his anti-gravity boots). Figuring that they might as well multitask, the Rogues started going through the goods, organizing out which would be the easiest to sell and which were most looked at in the markets today. Captain Boomerang and Trickster wandered off to the money vault and Mirror Master, still looking exhausted, started putting the goods they found into a bag to drop off in the mirror dimension where he could pick it up later.

It wasn't long until a red-tipped arrow landed in the room, shrouding the area in a layer of smoke. Hartley started coughing, pulling his flute to his lips and curling his fingers around in the correct fashion. A sudden wind blew through the store, washing the smoke out into the street and blowing past the red robed figure standing with a bow and arrow aimed right at them. Hartley licked his lips, ready to play. The figure stepped forward and said, "How come Central's baddies are all the way over here in Star City?"

"We came looking for you." Captain Cold said, subtly making a gesture with his hand. That was the sign Hartley had been looking for.

Red Arrow hadn't been able to get farther than saying, "Oh real-," before the lullaby from Hartley's flute knocked him out.

Mirror Master clapped a hand on the teen's back, "Good job, kid. Alright, let's go."

Hartley wanted to grimace and cringe away from the hand. He didn't deserve any sort of praise. Not when this was all his fault. It was his fault that Wally was missing and that they had to resort to this in the first place. Things were supposed to be getting back to normal. They were supposed to be better now that they knew who Wally was and what he was so afraid of. They were supposed to be tracking down his biological family (although, they knew who that was now, so the tracking down wasn't all that difficult) and convincing them to let the Rogues adopt the kid. Instead, they were abducting a hero and preparing to question him on the location of their youngest.

All because Hartley was stupid.

_He and James had left for their heist in good time, getting what they needed to get done pretty fast (as in, less than half the amount of time they had prepared for) and starting the long-haul home. At the rate they'd been going, there had been a good chance that they were going to get home in the late morning. They'd been going radio silent, so the comms had been off which was nice every once in a while. Then Hartley had started to notice some strange things. He'd just started driving into Central City and there wasn't a single adult wherever he could see. Everything was in actual chaos. There were tons of crashed cars and a few burning buildings and screaming children everywhere. Hartley's voice had been tight and controlled when he'd ordered, "James, turn on the comms."_

_James, eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open, nodded and flipped the comms on. Before either of them could try to ask anything, a voice came through, "_ -ster? Pied Piper? One of you? Come on, someone has to have their comms on. This is Robin. Come in. _"_

_"Robin? What are you doing? Look, Nevermind. Don't answer that. There's something wrong with Central. We'll deal with whatever you need after we deal with our hometown, alright?" Hartley said, not really wanting to deal with whatever the Boy Wonder wanted from them._

_Robin interrupted quickly, "_ Wait! That's what I wanted to talk to you about! I know what's going with your city. It's happening all over the world and that's what I needed you guys for. There's a spell going on right now that split the world into two earths. There's one with all the adults on it and one with all the kids on it. I'm trying to get kid heroes – antiheroes, villains, anyone – to cover the big cities and try to get as many kids to safety as possible. I don't have anyone available to do Central, so I need you guys to. Just get the kids to big places like the school or playgrounds. Don't go to the city hall or wherever you think adults would congregate. When the worlds mesh back together, we don't know what's going to happen if an adult and a kid are standing in the same place. So try to get kids to places where parents wouldn't go, cool? Get the other older kids to help out and spread the word. Thank you."

_Hartley blinked in shock for a moment before stuttering out, "O-okay. Yeah, sure. We'll go do that."_

_"_ Thanks. You're a life saver! _" With that, Robin cut out of the conversation and it was just James and Hartley again._

_Looking at the older teen, Hartley said, "Let's split up. I'll take this half of town and get the kids here to safety. Since you've got your boots, you'll get to the other side of town quicker. Go help those kids. We'll meet up at our school gym and talk to Robin again once we're done, alright?" James nodded and Hartley parked the car. The two got out and immediately got to the jobs they'd set for themselves._

It hadn't even occurred to Hartley to check on Momentum. He'd been so freaked out by what was going on and then so focused on saving the children (this didn't count as hero work because they weren't doing this as heroes; they were just doing this because it was part of the code of the Rogues that they don't hurt kids and watching them burn alive in cars counted as hurting them) that it hadn't Wally hadn't even crossed his mind. Admittedly, none of the other Rogues had crossed his mind and everyone knew that he could get some impressive tunnel vision, but still! How horrible of a brother was he that he didn't even think of the fact that Wally must have been terrified waking up all alone in the house? And then Hartley had his comms off the whole morning, so Wally must have tried to contact him and not reached him and then, at some point before Hartley turned them on, given up.

It was all. Hartley's. Fault.

"Hey, kid," Mark said, startling Hartley back into the present, "We're here. You okay, kiddo? You're getting that look on your face again that says that you're thinking something unpleasant. Everything alright?"

"Yeah, fine." Hartley said, voice clipped and sounding about as fine as he felt.

Mark stopped, putting a gentle but firm hand on Hartley's shoulder to stop him from walking away. Mark waited until the rest walked further into the random field they'd found and then lowered his voice, "Hartley. I know you're not alright. Tell me what's eating you."

Hartley sighed, closing his eyes for a second, "It's really nothing, Mark. I'm just being stupid."

The metahuman's eyes narrowed before widening again, "Oh no. No, no, no. I recognize that phrase. That's what you always say when you're blaming yourself for something, but you know that we won't agree that you're at fault and somehow that's not enough to make you realize that it's not your fault so you just let the problem fester until you blow up at us a couple days later before going into an epic sulk session. What could you possibly be blaming yourself for?" Hartley glared at him, opening his mouth to angrily protest, but Mark held up a hand and kept going, "You're blaming yourself for Wally disappearing, aren't you?" Hartley made to storm off, but Mark grabbed his shoulder again, "Aren't you?"

Hartley glanced at the group waiting around Red Arrow before turning back to Mark and hissing, "Of course I'm blaming myself! It was my fault! You know how horrible I am? I didn't even  _think_  about checking up on him! I just carried on my merry way and ignored the fact that Wally was home alone and probably jumping to the worst conclusions and now he's  _gone_. If I'd checked on him, he wouldn't be gone! And we'd all be home and happy and it'd all be  _fine_!"

Mark glanced at the group too and lowered his voice, "You  _cannot_  be serious! Gah! Do you – you just – Look, Hartley, every single one of us makes incredibly  _stupid_  mistakes that end up in incredibly bad things happening, okay? You think I haven't royally screwed something up because I was scared or freaked out or focused on making sure that the city I live in isn't going to be  _burned down because there aren't any adults around_? So I know what making a mistake in that kind of situation is like. What you did – that wasn't a mistake. That wasn't a screw up. That was how anyone would have reacted. Wally hasn't been with us long and he practically doesn't wake up until dinner time. You hadn't been home all morning, so you had no way of knowing that he was awake or that he hadn't seen us before the spell was enacted. You don't even know when the spell started. You stopped the city from burning. You even got us some cash and some loot while you were at it. You did well."

Hartley wasn't ready to let this go, though. This was only one thing in a long list of things that felt like his fault around Wally. It was his failure scoping the hotel room out that got him to run the first time. It was his suggestion that gave Wally the idea to kidnap Kaldur – which got him to run the second time. It was his stupidity that left Wally alone which got him to run again – or get kidnapped or killed or  _something_. Who even cared? It was all Hartley's fault and Mark couldn't see that. Why couldn't he see it? It was clear as day! So Hartley reacted the same way he always reacted to situations where he was upset – he got mean, "It's obvious why you're saying that! You're just saying that because you're angry that Wally was a consultant and you're secretly glad that he's gone!"

Mark stilled very suddenly, "I'm sorry,  _what did you say_?" It was still a quiet whisper, but there was a torrent of anger behind the words.

Hartley was still angry, though – at himself for screwing up and making this worse, at Wally for disappearing, at Mark for trying to push the issue, at the world for always getting in the way of him and his family. Hartley stood taller and hissed, "You heard me. Wally was a consultant to a superhero and that made you mad. You couldn't handle the fact that someone close to you was doing anything but what you wanted. But now he's gone and you don't have to deal with that anymore. You're glad that Wally's gone, aren't you?"

"Now listen here you -," Mark started angrily, finally raising his voice and stepping closer to Hartley. The teen flinched back at the same time a freezing cold body inserted itself between the two of them.

Cold has his goggles lifted and he made sure to pin both Rogues with his freezing cold stare, "What, exactly, are you two doing? You wouldn't be fighting while we're in the company of a  _hero_ , would you?" Adrenaline heightened the perception of time so everything seems to slow down. With the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Hartley could understand where Wally was coming from when he said that waiting for Len to finish his sentences when the leader was angry was actually torture for someone with enhanced perception of time.

Mark sent Hartley a withering glare before growling, "We weren't doing anything. C'mon. Isn't that archer brat awake yet?"

After a few seconds, the attention of the rest of the group migrated off Hartley and back towards the immobile hero. Well, the rest of the group except for Captain Cold. The leader of the Rogues scanned Hartley with a piercing gaze, "Don't take out your anger on others. Don't internalize it either. Most importantly, don't let it interfere with the mission. Figure out something in between that gets rid of the anger. Got it?" Hartley nodded, but stayed back when Len went to go join the others near the hero. The Flash was always horrified when he heard Len talk to the team like that, but Hartley appreciated it. The rest of the Rogues did too. When Len made the problem about affecting the family and  _failing_  that family, suddenly the problem was a lot easier to solve. Phrasing his advice like that made it so the Rogues were actually pushed to act instead of just deliberating over the problem endlessly.

James's voice sounded out from next to him, "It's my fault that Wally's gone."

Hartley jumped, whirling around to where James was floating cross-legged behind him. Hartley held a hand to his heart, "Jesus, James. You nearly gave me a heart attack." After a second, the older teen's words really sunk in and Hartley's eyes widened in shock, "No! James, no. It's not your fault at all!"

James tilted his head to the side curiously, "Why not? You think it's your fault, right? I was in the exact same situation as you. I was even closer to the safe house that Wally was in. I could have actually walked in and checked on him. So why is it your fault and not mine?"

Hartley opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Nothing so much as came to mind. He refused to believe that this was James's fault, but… the kid was right. He was in the same situation as Hartley. So if James was faultless, then Hartley had to be too. James apparently realized the moment Hartley got it because he patted the younger teen on the back and said, "I'm not saying that we shouldn't do better next time, but this isn't our fault. You getting mad at Mark is your fault though, but that's a lot easier of a fix." The teen grinned a toothy grin at Hartley before popping back off towards the rest of the group.

A smile finally on his face, Hartley followed. James was right. When the kid was having his few rare (oh so heartbreakingly rare) moments of lucidity, he was incredibly intelligent and actually an amazing older brother. And, it was kind of nice having the older brother instead of being the older brother to someone who was older than you.

Red Arrow was waking up when Hartley stopped next to Mark. The weather themed villain gave him a heated, but curious glare when he saw that Hartley had decided to stand there. Red Arrow's curse stopped Hartley from saying anything, "What are you doing? Central was good enough for you anymore so you decided to come and  _kidnap_  me?"

"Cool off, Red Arrow." Captain Cold said, ignoring the groans behind him. The Rogues had a tally board that marked off the number of puns that Captain Cold says compared to the ones that the Flash says. Despite the fact that they include the ones said out of costume for Len, the Flash was still beating him by a couple puns or so. Captain Cold continued, "We're here for information."

"What kind of information would I have that is at all related to Central's criminal underworld?" Red Arrow was practically growling at them.

Cold rolled his eyes, "We seem to be in a bit of a situation and we think it's in your best interest to help us with that situation. Or are you not obligated to help Momentum as his criminal informant handler?" Cold said it all with an unaffected drawl, but Hartley could detect the fact that Cold was bitter about Wally partially joining the other side too. The leader of the Rogues wouldn't say anything either way until they got Wally home and he explained things a little better, but there was definitely some bitterness there.

Red Arrow, on the other hand, had gone pale, the whites of his mask widening drastically, "What do you mean? I only interacted with Momentum that one night when he tried to steal from the Queens."

"Momentum told us." Heatwave grunted, shifting from side to side and fingering his gun. It'd been a while since he'd properly burned something what with all the drama going on.

This seemed to do nothing to appease Red Arrow who growled, "Momentum told you what? I've only ever interacted with him the one time. Mind, I've heard about him from the Young Justice League and from the Flash and stuff, but that's it. Will you get out of my city now?"

"Your city? Please, this is Green Arrow's city. You're an unknown and no one cares about you." Mirror Master said. Most people wouldn't notice it, but Hartley noticed the sweat beading on his brow from the constant mirror dimension traveling he's been doing. Hartley bit his lip and glanced around. Everyone looked exhausted; some more than others, but still.

Red Arrow curled his lip at them, "What do you know?"

Captain Boomerang interrupted the budding fight, "Whateva, whateva. No one cares. Look, mate, Momentum is missing. We have no idea where 'e is. You have to help us." The group fell silent, gauging Red Arrow's reaction to see if he would help them or not.

After a few moments, Red Arrow sighed and said, "I have no idea where he is, but I can text him, alright? Just let one of my hands go or something." Trickster undid the ties he'd bound the hero with and the group as a whole fingered their weapons, ready for some sort of trick.

Red Arrow projected his movements and made sure that someone could see exactly was he was doing at all times. He pulled out a burner phone and clicked on an unnamed number, flipping to the text option. Very obviously, he texted out what he wanted to say.

_Red Arrow (12:15am):_

_Momentum, where are you?_

Everyone paused for a moment and Red Arrow scowled at them, "Just because I texted him right now doesn't mean he's going to answer right away. It is ridiculously early in the morning. He's probably sleeping somewhere." Before anyone could say anything, though, the phone buzzed. Red Arrow turned it so the screen was facing more towards them.

_Momentum (12:16am):_

_Do you not know?_

_Also, I had finally fallen asleep, so thanks for waking me up._

The fond smile Red Arrow sent the phone made Hartley want to rip it out of his hands and break the hero's nose.

_Red Arrow (12:18am):_

_Dude, why would I ask if I didn't know where you were? And good, I deliberately waited until this very moment so I could wait until you fell asleep so I could wake you up. That was my dastardly plan the entire time._

Hartley could tell that even Len was a little miffed at the familiarity between the two gingers.

_Momentum (12:18am):_

_I joined the Light, remember? Wasn't it our plan to feed info to the JL the entire time?_

Red Arrow's mask widened again and he started typing. Hartley wasn't sure how he felt. Sure, they'd agreed to do this, but not right then. Why had he left already instead of waiting? Did he think it would be easier or something? Didn't he know that they'd worry.

_Red Arrow (12:19am):_

_That was supposed to start Friday! Why are you doing it already? And why are you texting me about it so obviously? They are going to catch you and actually kill you._

_Momentum (12:19am):_

_Bro, are you doubting me? I'm too fast for them to catch. Seriously, though, there aren't any cameras in my room here. Which, when I figure out where here is, I'll totally let you know. I'm going to do my best to figure out how to go on little trips out of this place so I can get my info to you. Sound good?_

_Red Arrow (12:20am):_

_Wait, you're *living* there? That wasn't part of the original agreement was it? The Rogues are freaking out over here because they think you're missing. You're going to go home and see them, aren't you?_

There was a long pause after that message. Red Arrow was tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for another message to come through. The rest of the Rogues were just as anxious, watching the hero with baited breath.

_Momentum (12:25am):_

_Look, I don't know what you're trying to achieve right now, but you can go ahead and stop. I know the Rogues aren't freaking out looking for me. It's fine. I get it._

Hartley stared at the text in confusion. What did he mean? Why did he think that they weren't looking for him? Was it because the adult Rogues had disappeared to that adult world earlier that day? And because the other two didn't come find him? Surely that wouldn't be enough to convince him that they weren't looking for him! He had to know about the spell that caused the adults to disappear. Didn't he?

Even as he thought it, it occurred to him that there had been no real way to know. Hartley and James never responded to his comms messages or checked their phones until after the ordeal. The Flash wouldn't have been able to check his phone, so he wouldn't be able to tell him. Wally must have gone to the Light after that and Hartley knew that the kid got tunnel vision when he was running with a purpose. There was a chance that he was so focused on his destination and running so fast that everything else just kind of blurred out. And if he was stressed, then he definitely would have gone past the speed of sound and that meant that he wouldn't have heard any of the screaming or the fires or the crashes that were occurring around the country. The situation was getting more bleak the longer Hartley thought about it.

_Red Arrow (12:27am):_

_Wally, the Rogues actually *kidnapped* me to make me tell them where you are. I am surrounded by angry Rogues at this very moment. They are watching me type out this message._

_Momentum (12:27am):_

_Then tell them that they don't need to worry about me. I arrived at the Light just fine and you don't need to freak out about it. I figured that since you weren't willing to see me off, I'd just make my merry way to the Light myself. Tell them to not bother trying to contact me again. I'll block this number if I hear anything about the Rogues again._

He thought that they abandoned him to the Light. Wally actually thought that they left so he could go to the Light and they wouldn't have to bother with the send off. That idiot! Hartley was fuming, fists clenched around his flute as his lips curled up in anger. What an utter moron! How was it even possible to function when he was so stupid? When Hartley saw Wally again, he was going to deck him. No holds barred, flat out deck him.

"There, are you happy now? He's safe. At least, as safe as he can get with those people." Red Arrow finished the last bit in a small, angry mutter before he got louder again, "Now get out of my city."

"Not quite yet." Captain Cold said, voice slick as ice, "We have one more thing to discuss with you." As one, the Rogues closed ranks around the ruby archer, hemming him in. Captain Cold's voice was as dangerous as black ice during a blizzard, "You seem to think that you know Wally quite well and you seem to think that you're good for him. As it currently stands, you're not our priority. But once we get Wally back, we will find you and we will make sure that you understand completely how protective we are of our family." And with that, they left, Hartley playing the melody that would put Red Arrow back to sleep.

Hartley grinned to himself. Finally, a lead.

WWWWWW

Wally panted slightly as he worked to block all of Cheshire's moves. They weren't even attempting to teach him offense yet because, according to Cheshire, 'he was a weak, puny boy who couldn't hold his own against a clawless kitten' and 'defense is the basis of attack; when you know how to defend, you know where to attack'. Wally was offended at the first one and confused about the second one, but was too terrified overall to make a comment about it. Because Cheshire was terrifying. She was cool and all with her jokes and snide sarcastic remarks, but still terrifying.

He wheezed out, "Hey Cheshire, can I ask you a question? Actually, scratch that, can I ask you two?"

"If you have enough energy to talk, you're not trying hard enough." Cheshire responded before driving her elbow into his gut, causing him to double over in pain, coughing as he tried to put his organs back into place because he was pretty sure she just dislocated some. Cheshire pushed him towards the bench at the back of the workout room, unlocking the inhibitor collar they put on him (with his reluctant permission) as a way to train him without him relying on his powers. She threw him a water and announced breezily, "I'll listen to your questions, but I'll only answer if I'm interested."

"Okay. Cool. Thanks. So, uh, what are the rules about me getting out of here? Am I here twenty four seven, or do I have to have a chaperone, or do I have to get permission, or what?" Wally asked, rubbing the bruise and practically feeling it go through the stages of being a bruise. Cheshire had suggested that he go shirtless (she was only in a sports bra and some loose pants which had made Wally uncomfortable because this was his teacher he was thinking about like that), but he'd refused saying that he was quite comfortable with his shirt on. She'd made a vague comment about everyone here having scars that Wally was pretty sure was an attempt to make him more comfortable with showing his own scars, but he wasn't about that. His scars were private and no one else needed to see them.

Cheshire bopped him on the back of the head (hard; harder than the Rogues ever did) and rolled her eyes, "That was already more than your two questions, but I'll be lenient because I'm bored. All you have to do is get permission from your handler – me – and tell me where you're going. Also, keep the comms we gave you with you at all times when not in the building – and while you're in it. Don't lose that."

"I'm not going to lose it. I'm not  _that_  bad." Wally said, rolling his eyes back. Cheshire turned her head to face him and, even though all he could see was the mask, it was kind of actually terrifying, so Wally moved on to his next question, "Okay, so, well… Does Red Arrow have any idea that he's a clone?"

Cheshire's hand stilled for a fraction of a second. If Wally was a normal person, he wouldn't have been able to notice, but he definitely not a normal person. There was something about Red Arrow that made Cheshire feel some sort of emotion. Then Cheshire was speaking, "No, he doesn't. And you won't tell him."

"Yeah, okay, I get that. I won't tell him. But… what part of him became friends with me? The superhero who honestly wanted a criminal informant? Or the clone who's been prepping me for this role the entire time?" Wally asked, slumping in his seat until Cheshire grabbed his shoulders and pushed them back. Apparently sitting properly in one's seat was necessary in training to defeat superheroes. Wally personally thought that it just bothered her when people slouched.

There was something approaching danger in Cheshire's voice when she asked, "If you're this concerned about this, then why continue with the Light's plan?"

"I'm pretty sure they'll have me killed if I say no." Wally admitted, a wry twist of his lips making the statement more serious.

Cheshire shook her mane of black hair, "That's not the only reason. You joined the Light because you trust Roy Harper. Then you found out he was a clone. And then you still joined the Light without seeming to hesitate."

Wally shifted in his seat, starting to get uncomfortable with the line of questioning, "You can't really tell when I hesitate. I do it too fast for the human eye to register."

"You can't hide the hesitation in your voice, though. There was only firm resolve in your voice when you said yes. If you knew Roy was a clone and you were having these doubts, then why did you say yes?" Cheshire pressed, stalking closer to him.

Wally was getting really uncomfortable now, a scowl forming on his lips, "I don't know! Alright? I guess… I guess I don't have to hope around him."

There was a pause that felt like she was narrowing her eyes at him from beneath the mask before the female assassin spoke, "What do you mean?"

He threw his head in his hands, groaning around his palms, "It doesn't make sense." He warned her before trying to explain, "I know him and he's amazing. He seems to genuinely like me for me, but he's also using me so it doesn't freak me out when he wants me around. He taught me how to do stuff and he trusted me and gave me advice. I genuinely like him and want to trust him. But that's Red Arrow. The clone part of him is an entirely different story. That's just a puppet for the Light. And the Light doesn't care about me. I'm expendable and I'm just a small tiny cog in a much bigger machine. So, I don't have to worry about whether or not Red Arrow will betray me. Because I trust him not to. So when he does eventually betray me, I can say that it was the clone's actions or programming or whatever that actually caused him to betray me. I don't have to hope that he won't do it because I know he will and I know it won't be his fault. That doesn't make any sense at all, does it?"

The way Cheshire's shoulders tensed and her fingers spasmed slightly (again, all in the space of time that a normal human wouldn't have noticed) told Wally that it made perfect sense to her, but the woman just snorted gracefully, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Why still follow him then if you 'know' he's going to betray you?"

"Where else do I have to go?" Wally asked.

There was a pause as the two of them drank in silence before Cheshire ripped the bottle of water out of Wally's hand and said, "Come on. Break's over. No more stupid questions." She then proceeded to kick the living daylights out of him. For training purposes, of course.

A half an hour later found Wally and Cheshire walking towards the cafeteria which, apparently, had 'relatively good food if you enjoy things high in protein'. Cheshire was teasing Wally, "Your fast healing is a godsend, really. I can pummel you all I want and then all I have to do is feed you and you're fine for another round."

"I'm glad you enjoy my enhanced healing factor. I got it especially for that purpose." Wally snarked, sending Cheshire a withering glare that he was pretty sure had about zero effect on her.

A different voice pulled them out of their conversation, "If it isn't the new kid. What's up, man?"

Wally glanced to a mostly empty table towards the side of the cafeteria. He grabbed one of the readymade plates (Cheshire grabbed him two more, muttering about how one probably wouldn't be enough for how hard she was going to work him) and made his way over to the teen who had called out to him. The teenaged boy was obviously albino, skin pale and hair just as pale. His eyes were ice blue, though. Wally didn't recognize him at all. The boy held out his hand as Wally sat down. The speedster had barely touched the freezing appendage when the boy started shaking it up and down, grinning enthusiastically, "I'm Icicle Jr., but you can call me Icicle. Or Cameron. That's my civvie name."

Wally's eyebrows raised as he finally recognized the name, "Momentum. And you're looking a little less blue than you do on the news."

Cameron laughed, eyes crinkling, "Yeah, I can switch the powers off. Mostly. I still end up albino and my skin temperature is off the charts cold a lot of the time, but other than that, the powers are mostly switched off."

Head tilted curiously to the side, Wally asked, "Do you prefer having your powers activated, or not? Disregarding other people's opinions and comfort and whatnot, of course."

Icicle actually seemed surprised by the question, blue eyes blinking for a moment before narrowing in thought, "You know, no one's ever actually asked me that before. So I've never really thought of an answer. Both forms have their perks, you know? Both have their downsides, too, but the downsides are pretty much the same. I look weird. It's uncomfortable for people to touch me. You get the deal. Being a metahuman is a curse and a blessing all wrapped up in one weird bundle, you know?"

"This conversation is boring. Momentum, meet me in the weapons vault in ten minutes." Cheshire said, legs gracefully sweeping up over the bench and gliding across the floor as she sashayed away.

Wally called after her, "Twenty minutes!"

"Ask for more time again and I'll castrate you!" Cheshire called back.

"Ten minutes it is!" Wally threw back hastily in response. Knowing that one, she'd actually castrate him.

Cameron grinned, eyebrows wiggling, "I've never seen her let someone backtalk her like that so soon after meeting her."

Wally gave him a droll stare, "There is no way I would ever end up in a relationship with someone like her. First of all, I know my weaknesses and I know that she's way out of my league. Second of all, that woman is too terrifying to have a proper relationship with. Or, really, any relationship."

Staring thoughtfully at the assassin's fading figure, Icicle nodded seriously, "I can totally see where you're coming from there. At the same time, you've gotta admit that she's gorgeous."

"Dude," Wally started, "Anyone with eyes has to admit that she's gorgeous. Anyone with eyes also has to admit that she's absolutely insane. She constantly wears that creepy mask for one thing."

"I don't know. The mask isn't that creepy. It's more… eccentric?" Icicle suggested.

The two turned to each other and burst out laughing. Wally thought that maybe being here wouldn't be as torturous as he'd thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys! I was at a dance/getting ready for the dance all yesterday and I completely forgot to post! As per usual when I miss a day (or several), here is yesterday's chapter and today's.


	21. Business Proposal

LLLLLL

Len gave his team a careful glance over. The group was dead on their feet, stumbling into each other and rubbing tiredly at their eyes. He was fairly certain that none of them had slept well the night after learning all they had about Wally, and they certainly hadn't slept at all through the day and night they'd been looking for him, so now they were standing in front of the doors leading to the Light running on several nights of missed sleep and there were so many ways this could go bad and end up with his team – his family – dead. But they'd talked about this. They had made the decision to act as soon as possible and confront the Light now while they were still running on some sort of stress-induced adrenalin high.

As things stood, the Rogues were faring better than Len had thought they would in these particular circumstances. Besides the fact that Sam had to lean slightly against Digger to stay upright (the group already knew that he was going to get sick after this and they'd need to let him rest for a few days) and the fact that Mark and Hartley hadn't really gotten a chance to talk out whatever it was they'd argued about, they were much more put together and active than Len had expected. Then again, he'd never expected this to happen. What was Wally  _thinking_  when he ran off and joined the Light early? Why on earth did he suddenly lose faith in them? He'd been doing  _so well_. He'd been doing so well that he'd actually decided to tell them his secrets.

That was a huge step in the right direction and the adoption papers were supposed to be an even bigger step in that direction but something had happened between then and now that sent them flying back to the starting point. And that irritated Len.

Especially since the people who sent them back to square one were the same people who Wally ran to. He chose the people who split them apart over his family. How was that supposed to make Len feel? What had he done wrong that this happened?

Ignoring that self-doubt for the moment, Len turned to the assassin guarding the door and nodded. The door was pulled open and the Rogues stepped into the room, blinking at the soft blue light that fell from the projections of other big heroes. These were the monsters that the Rogues would be more than willing to condemn. These were people who Len could see hanging out with people like Reverse Flash and the Joker. They were sick buggers who lived to cause pain and instill fear. They weren't playing this game because it was fun – not like Len and his family. They were playing this game because they got off on other people's suffering. Jerks.

But he couldn't let that show on his face. Len was currently in a verbal battle against some of the best verbal fighters the world had seen. Luthor and Savage were some of the best. Ra's al Ghul would probably stay mostly out of it, but if he decided the conversation was worth his skill, there would be trouble. The Brain didn't seem to understand the little nuances of things as well, but he was still a formidable opponent. Len had never interacted with Queen Bee enough to really have an opinion on her. And Klarion the Witch Boy was just nuts. There was no question about that.

Luthor started the battle, "The Rogues. How pleasant it is to see you here. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Len had instructed the rest of the Rogues to stand down and not make a sound unless he indicated that they were allowed to. He knew that the rule wouldn't stand long, but he hoped he could set up the battlefield well enough before they started in on the friendly fire. Len drawled back, "There seemed to be a bit of a misunderstanding in our agreement. I don't recall agreeing to letting Momentum live here. We just came to clear that problem up."

Queen Bee smirked as if she'd already won, " _Wally_  agreed to live here. He chose this place as his home. And, well, you aren't in any way related to him – by blood or by law, so his choice stands, minor or not." Well, there went Len defense about being family.

Smirking back, Len drawled, "Due to a certain spell that was performed – by you, Klarion, if I have heard correctly – Momentum seems to be under the impression that we were giving him… the cold shoulder. Talking with him would easily solve the problem and get him out of your hair."

"I don't see any problem with keeping him here. He hasn't caused any issues. The other members of the Light that are here don't seem to have any issue with him. They seem to quite like him, actually. I only see him as an asset that it would be unfortunate to lose." Ra's al Ghul responded, shrugging his shoulders slightly at the end as if to say that he really didn't care either way, but he was going to get his way anyways. Len wanted to growl at him that it was  _their_  hard work and effort that got Wally to the point that he was so likeable to other people. Without his time with the Rogues, he'd still be that snarling street kid he was when they started.

"That's only the tip of the iceberg," Len argued dispassionately, "of what he can do. Imagine if he was in a setting that he was more comfortable with. Imagine he was working with the team he started training with. He would be much more efficient."

"We currently have him undergoing training with one of my top assassins. I can't imagine better training than that. It also teaches him to be more independent, something that your training seems to lack." Ra's al Ghul commented. Len thought back to his earlier mental statement that Ra's al Ghul wouldn't be much trouble because he normally wasn't interested enough to get into a verbal sparring match. Something about Wally interested the man enough that Ra's al Ghul was willing to do the dirty work and fight this fight. That terrified Len more than anything. This man's attention was never a good thing.

Luthor didn't seem so keen on letting the teenaged hero go either, "Besides, the tasks we have planned for him are easier with a single person performing them, not a team. A team would only get in the way."

"At least let us see him, you heartless monsters!" It was, surprisingly, the normally cool headed Sam who made the outburst, skin pale and hands shaking slightly, but standing on his own for the moment. Len wanted to roll his eyes. They disregarded his instructions sooner than he was planning. He'd have to do some damage control.

Len tried to soothe the group, "What Mirror Master meant to say is that a conversation with Momentum would ease everyone's minds and make this arrangement more beneficial to the entirety of the group."

"Mirror Master meant exactly what 'e said! You bloomin' monsters better let us see the little ankle biter or there'll be problems!" Captain Boomerang threw in.

Savage sneered at them, "My, quite the disorderly bunch you have here, Captain Cold."

That was not acceptable. The other Rogues might be irritating Len with their inability to follow basic instructions, but insulting them was not allowed and would not be tolerated. Len stood to his full height, fully aware that he would never tower over the projections that surrounded him, but needing to show them that he didn't care what they thought of him. His voice was dangerous when he replied slowly, "At least my 'disorderly bunch' is capable of defeating the Young Justice League – something you yourself has failed to do. On several occasions if I recall correctly. Isn't that why you begged for our help in the first place?"

Vandal Savage's eyes flashed dangerously, but Len didn't move a muscle. Luthor broke through the mounting tension in the room, "Now, now. Let's all play nicely here. There's no need to resort to petty insults. The way I see it, both of us have something that the other wants. You, the Rogues, wish to talk with Wally and attempt to convince him to go home with you. We, the Light, wish for the Young Justice League to be eliminated as a potential threat to our plans. Why not help each other out? Get the team of teenaged brats out of the way, and we'll help you get Wally back. A quid pro quo."

The rest of the Light shifted in their seats, eyes flashing cautiously between Savage and Luthor. Len had a feeling that the group had decided that there would be no leader so they would all have equal roles, but then came to the realization that running this big of an op without a clear leader was a bad idea. It was too late to change now, but two separate entities had brought themselves to the top of the group. All that was going to happen was that the Light was going to split between the immortal Vandal Savage and the businessman Lex Luthor. Both were very opposite in their methods and their skill set, but the one thing they had in common was their patience. The two would be able to keep playing this game and keeping the charade of a functioning group up until the bitter end, but whomever sided with them would likely not have the same restraint. Len could already see the divisions: Ra's al Ghul obviously had some sort of stake in Luthor's vision and Klarion had attached himself to the immortal. The Brain and Queen Bee were up for grabs, but that would likely be settled in the course of a single argument.

The Light was already falling apart; the Young Justice League didn't need to do anything but run damage control when it inevitably self-destructed. Unfortunately, the Light wouldn't dare blame themselves on such failure. People like Wally, whoever else was living at this base, the Rogues themselves would be the target of the Light's anger at their own actions. If Len wanted himself and his family to survive this ordeal, they were going to need to perform some tricky maneuvering. Wally was already feeding information to the Justice League via the red archer. Len had a feeling, however, that the Justice League wouldn't be as sharing as they needed to be with their mini counterparts team. From what Len had observed of the Justice League and their sidekicks over the years, the 'bigger heroes' didn't trust the 'kids' with the big stuff and the Light was definitely big news. What the Justice League doesn't realize is that the lack of information would only cause internal strife and problems that might even let this highly dysfunctional group of big hitter villains to come out on top.

That meant that the Rogues were going to have to coordinate with the team of little heroes to make sure that the Light went down and went down hard. Len didn't want to help the other side out, but he wouldn't take chances if it meant the lives of his family. It would take a while to convince the Rogues of the validity of this plan, but Len was putting his foot down. He knew that the older Rogues were already not happy with the amount of times he'd put his foot down on matters recently, but they were just going to have to deal with it. At the beginning of their dysfunctional group, they'd voted on a leader and he'd been decided. They made their bed, so they were going to have to lie in it.

Len raised a careful eyebrow, "And what, precisely, counts as 'getting the brats out of your way'?"

"You should kill them!" Klarion interjected, seemingly only just now entering the conversation. Len wondered if he'd heard a bit of the rest. In a way, he reminded Len of what James could have been with the wrong people taking advantage of him. If some of the more savage villains had gotten ahold of the little genius, there was a good chance that James would be killing people and torturing them. If the people who got him didn't see a need for his medication, James likely wouldn't even realize how wrong his actions were until afterwards. The guilt would drive him mad. Or he'd be like Klarion and become a remorseless monster.

Mick looked like he was about to say something, so Len interrupted him, "That's too cliched and boring for us, unfortunately. Besides, we have a running deal with the Flash. He lets a few of our more… minor infractions slip by if we don't kill anyone. It would be a shame to lose that."

Queen Bee snorted delicately, "What they mean to say is that they're not man enough to actually kill."

Ra's al Ghul sat back in his seat, tone mocking, "Mm, I personally interpreted that as something different. The way I see it, they're just dogs that the Flash is training. Treats for good behaviors. Time out for bad ones. Is he training you to be his little super pets?"

Weather Wizard growled, stalking forward until Mick grabbed the back of his shirt, dragging him back behind Len. The leader nodded to the pyromaniac in thanks. The man just stared dispassionately back at him. Len figured he wasn't fiery enough to interest his teammate at the moment. It has been a while since he's set something on fire.

"Maybe the Flash should have trained that one better." Ra's al Ghul smirked.

Len carefully breathed through his nose to avoid getting angry. He needed to be more peaceful during this particular portion of the negotiations. So he took a dangerous risk and ignored Ra's al Ghul, turning to Luthor instead, "You never answered my question." His dismissal of the leader of the assassins only seemed to amuse the man, luckily. Len couldn't help but let off a little sigh of relief. That decision could have gotten him and his team killed.

Luthor seemed to have noticed the exchange too because his lips curled up into a tiny smile (Savage was frowning heavily at them from the other side), "Indeed I haven't. All I want is for them to be away from our plans until our plans have been completed."

"Are you sure that's what you want? We'd need to know your plans for that to work out. Do you really want lackeys knowing that much?" Len asked, his voice lilted slightly to show his amusement at the thought of calling them lackeys. His voice also let the Light know that they shouldn't dare to call them lackeys.

Luthor smirked again, "There's hardly anyone you'd bother telling. You are, in fact, villains. You might not hurt women or children and you might not involve yourself in the more despicable aspects of villainy, but you are still criminals to the heart. Besides, I can't say how your failure to achieve your demands might affect Wally." The smirk widened.

Hartley finally spoke up, his fear of the villains in the room taking the back burner for the moment in the face of his anger, "Are you threatening him? The Rogues don't take well to threats."

"Of course we're threatening him. Do as we say or get him killed." Savage growled, obviously irritated with the conversation.

Luthor clucked his tongue dismissively, eyes narrowing, "Don't listen to him. You're under my purview and will listen to me only. To prevent any misunderstandings, of course." He added that when Savage's glare turned on him. Luthor sent his own level gaze back before continuing his conversation with the Rogues, "We are not threatening him. I was merely referencing the agreement. If you fail to keep the Young Justice League out of the way, you will not be given the chance to the talk to Wally and he will stay here for however long he wishes. You may never see him again if that ends up being the case. That was all I intended with my comment." That was a blatant lie if Len ever heard one, but he certainly wasn't going to call the business man out on that. Now wasn't the time and this certainly wasn't the place. They were in the Light's territory and it was too dangerous to talk back too much. They'd probably already reached their limit of snarky comments.

Len stared passively at Luthor for a long moment, the man mimicking his expression. A thousand words and threats and agreements were met in that moment of eye contact, but there weren't any words to truly explain them. After the moment had passed, Len gave the slightest of nods and Luthor sat back in his seat, satisfied, "I'm glad we could reach an agreement. I will, of course, have a written agreement drawn up and sent to your last known residence at the earliest convenient time – before your first mission, of course. I wouldn't want to be accused of going back on my word, now would I?" He paused, busying himself with some paperwork before glancing back up at the gathered Rogues, "Was that all you wished to discuss?"

Wanting – needing – the last word, Len threw over his shoulder, "You might want to muzzle your pets. Their yapping tends to get in the way of higher discussions of business proposals." The Light's angry splutterings and Luthor's delighted laugh followed the Rogues' exit of the room.

Len's plan had started and he had no intentions of stopping until Wally was safely home with them.


	22. A Mission

WWWWWW

Wally felt ridiculous. He felt like he was one of those chicks in the movies who nervously sits on the park bench and glances around to try to pick out the person she's been dating online for weeks who she's just now meeting for the first time. He was not a lovesick girl and he had seen Freddie before and he should not feel as nervous as he did.

He would, however, blame those irrational nerves on the way he jumped and screeched a little bit when a voice came from behind him, "Hi John." His screech (and yes, he would admit to it being a screech) was met with the eerie cackles that Wally had learned to associate with Freddie.

Holding a hand to his heart, Wally gasped, "Freddie! Don't  _ever_  do that again. Jesus."

Eyebrows waggling over the top of his thick black sunglasses, Freddie smirked, "Scaredy cat much?"

"It's the body's natural reaction to sudden or startling actions. The jump is the body's way of getting you away from whatever moved suddenly in case it's dangerous. The adrenaline makes sure that you're ready to fight or flee based on whatever came up behind you. And the yell is to make sure that if there are others of your kind around, then they know that there's trouble and can escape." Wally informed him, straightening his jacket out a little bit and glancing around him, making sure he hadn't attracted any attention with his outburst. The park bench where he'd first met the kid was the only place Wally could think of meeting him, but Wally also didn't want to chance being recognized. He didn't know what was going on with the Rogues, but he didn't want to be anywhere near them again.

Freddie cackled again, "Sure, that's exactly why. You're just a little girl at heart."

"Are you saying that little girls are somehow inferior? Are you honestly saying that you could say no to a little girl scout offering you cookies? I am a little girl at heart because I have foolproof persuasion skills and a soul so adorable that people can't hit me. More people should have little girls at heart." Wally announced, sniffing derisively.

Freddie's mouth was slightly open and his forehead was creased in thought, "What are you even talking about anymore?"

"Dude, I don't know." Wally said, shaking his head and shrugging.

"Anyways," Freddie said, sitting down gracefully on the park bench, "Shouldn't we get onto more serious topics?"

"We could not." Wally answered, staring off through the trees into the clearing that Freddie's friends had been playing in when Wally had first met the ebony haired kid.

Freddie laid a hesitant, but comforting hand on the speedster's arm and said, "We need to talk about this. You were happy with whoever you were living with. I could tell through the texts. You're just going to be miserable wherever you are and… I don't want you to be miserable. You're one of my best friends and I can't let you hurt yourself." His expression was so earnest, even with those giant glasses and Wally felt his heart melt a little bit at the amount this person cared about him. But he was wrong.

Wally's jaw clenched and he threw back, "Why does it even matter who I choose to live with? It won't affect you at all. If this… family – place, family, whatever – doesn't work out, then I'll just leave again. It'll be fine. It won't affect our relationship – friendship! Our friend relationship."

Freddie gave him a strange glance at the last couple of sentences, but Wally just curled in on himself a little instead of stopping to think about it. The comforting hand on his arm tightened a little bit and tugged. Wally glanced over to see that Freddie was biting his lip, apparently nervous, before he blurted out, "Please, please, please don't make me tell you how I know this. Because I can't tell you. I shouldn't even be saying what I'm about to say. Do you promise to not ask?"

Nose crinkling in concern and forehead wrinkling, Wally nodded, "I promise. What do you have to say that's so serious?"

When Freddie responded, Wally wished he hadn't asked. Freddie pulled his hand back and spoke, "I know that you're Momentum. I know that you lived with the Rogues and that you're a metahuman – a speedster. I know that you think they abandoned you and that they left and I know that you went to go stay with a very bad group of people. So I'm begging you, please go back to the Rogues."

Wally wanted to take back his promise. He wanted to get up and run to Vlatava or Rhelasia. He wanted to go talk to Eel – Patrick – because the former thief would talk it out with him. He wanted to be anywhere but there at that moment. How did Freddie know?  _How_? Wally worked so hard to keep that life away from the friendship he created with Freddie. The black haired kid was the first not-family friend that Wally had ever had and the thought that he knew about Wally? Freddie knew that Wally was a criminal and a liar and a horrible human being and he knew more than he should ever know andthisshouldn'tbehappeningandwhywasthishappeningand –

Freddie cut off his panicked thoughts by saying, "John, please, look at me. I'm not angry. I wish you weren't a, a supervillain and I wish you had chosen some more honest people to make your family, but I'm not angry. I found out a couple of days ago, so I've had some time to get over being angry. Just, you can't stay where you're staying. You can't."

"Why didn't you tell me you knew?" Wally whispered, not daring to be any louder. He was afraid that he would scream or cry or run and he wasn't sure if he wanted any of those things or all of them, but he did know that he didn't want to cause a scene.

The little exhale before Freddie spoke was the only sign that he was at all surprised by Wally's line of questioning, "Would you have done it any different if you were in my place?"

Wally's shoulders slumped, "That didn't answer my question."

"That didn't answer mine." Freddie tried for a smirk, but it just came off concerned and sad instead.

"I guess we're at a standstill." Wally joked back, a smile not quite forming right on his face either.

There was a pause that could have been a few seconds or a few minutes or even a few hours for as well as Wally's skewed sense of time could figure out before Freddie spoke again, hesitantly, "We still good?"

Wally closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and shrugging, "Yeah, I s'pose so. Yeah… we're still good. I'm not going back to the Rogues, though. They made it obvious that they didn't want me around anymore."

"Why would you think that? The Rogues love you. You obviously love them." Freddie shot back, voice insistent and little bit frustrated too.

"Look, Freddie, I told the Rogues about me. I told them who I am and who I know and what I've been doing. I woke up the next morning and they were all gone. I went looking for them and, since I knew the Light – the group that I'm with now – had an interest in the Rogues, I went to them for answers and they told me that the Rogues had told the Light that they wanted me gone so they'd let the Light have me a few days early. They don't want me. I don't know why you've got it in your head that they do, but they don't." Wally argued.

Freddie practically growled, "Did you stop to ask why they weren't there?"

"It's obvious why they weren't there! They didn't have the guts to see me off themselves." Wally growled back.

Freddie threw his hands in the air, "Get everyone's take on the situation first! You were obviously too thick to notice it, but the rest of the world wasn't. The day after you apparently told the Rogues about yourself, the Light performed a spell that separated the world into one with just adults and one with just kids. The Rogues were stuck in that other world. They couldn't have gotten to you if they wanted to. By the time the worlds were put back together, you were already gone!"

Wally's breath caught in his throat as images of a glowing spell with a crystal and a team of heroes trying to stop him. Images of an ebony haired Bat asking him why he would defend a spell when he didn't know what it did. Shaking his head to dislodge the hope that had only ever hurt him, Wally scowled. He called Roy, who was an adult. How could Roy have answered? Then again, the Light said that he was a clone. There was a chance that the call was the result of the Light's tampering. Could the Light be running a conspiracy this complex? Why? Wally's shoulders dropped and he leaned over a little bit, elbows resting on his knees, "You know, it's kind of funny. All my life, no one wanted me. I was a useless nuisance who got in the way and just stunk up people's alleyways. Now? All of a sudden, the Rogues want me, my uncle wants me, the Light wants me. Why? Why do they all want me so much?"

Freddie sounded like his heart was breaking when he pulled Wally into a one-armed hug, "Why wouldn't they all want you? You're amazing. But, John, the Rogues care the most. I can't speak for your uncle, but the Light just wants to use you. The Rogues actually care. And even if none of them wanted you for good reasons, I care about you. I care, John. Don't throw away your life with the Light."

"Even if the Rogues actually wanted me – I'm still not convinced – but even if they wanted me, I'd stay with the Light anyways." Wally said, leaning into the hug and letting his eyes drift close.

Freddie was frustrated when he responded, "Why? Why would you  _do_  that?"

"I said that I wouldn't ask how you know this, but I do need to know something. Are you connected to the world of heroes and villains at all? Because if you aren't, then this is too much. If you aren't, then I can't be talking to you about this. If you're a civilian, then I won't let you deal with all of this. I'm new to the scene of supers – as new as a metahuman can be – but it's still hard for me to deal with. And please, tell me the truth." Wally said. He wouldn't burden his friend with too much. He was already burdening him with more than he should be, but he wouldn't add to that burden if Freddie was just a civvie. He wouldn't need to know this.

Freddie answered firmly, "I am connected to the world and heroes and villains." He said it with such conviction that Wally was forced to believe him.

Sighing, Wally said, "I won't leave the Light because I'm reporting to the Justice League about them." That wasn't necessarily true. In the end, he was reporting false information to the Justice League because he had sworn his allegiance to the Light instead of the Justice League.

Freddie sighed, but didn't comment on that, choosing to focus back on his original argument, "How do you still not believe that the Rogues care about you? It was the Light lying to you the entire time."

"How do you explain Hartley and James? Why wouldn't they have found me? They didn't even try to contact me." Wally spat.

Freddie sighed back, "How do you know they didn't try? And maybe they were busy."

"Right, because their heist is more important." Wally said bitterly.

"Did you even give them a chance to contact you before you disappeared off to the Light?" Freddie asked exasperatedly.

"I was there all morning trying to contact someone, anyone!" Wally defended.

"And when were they supposed to get back from their heist?" Freddie asked reasonably.

Okay, that was a good point. They hadn't been supposed to come back until the afternoon. That didn't explain why they didn't answer their comms, though. The ride home would have taken an hour or so, and Wally was still home during the time they should have been riding home and the rule was that they were supposed to check their comms when they were driving home. They would have gotten his calls eventually. Right? That's how the timing worked out, right? Freddie sighed again and asked, "Why are you so convinced that they would have wanted to leave you? What did they do to convince you that you weren't wanted?"

Wally sighed and clenched his fists, "Nothing. They didn't do a single thing that made it seem like they didn't want me. And that's why I was so convinced that they didn't want me around. You don't understand, Freddie. They're so wonderful and nice and I finally feel like I have a family. I haven't felt like that in so long. They're perfect. And I'm the exact opposite of that. I'm the piece of trash that ruins perfection. I tear things apart and ruin them. I'm just a broken piece of trash and they don't deserve something as awful as me. And I know they realized that. And I know that they were too nice to tell me because they're perfect. So it makes sense that they'd get rid of me any way they could."

There was a sort of horror in his voice when Freddie responded, "What happened to you to make you hate yourself so much?"

Wally thought back to the way his father screamed about how useless he was and how his mother always glared at him with disgust and the way the kids at school called him soulless and how the men in the van called him a monstrous freak and the way the scientists only referred to him as a thing when they were experimenting on him. He thought back to the way every person he'd ever known dropped him like hot coals at some point or another – purposefully hurtful or not. He thought back to the fact that he hadn't been able to remember what a hug felt like until he'd gone to live with his aunt and uncle. His shrug was vague and little bit numb and broken when he responded, "Sometimes life just sucks."

"Not anymore." Freddie responded firmly, "Anything that anyone ever told you or did to you doesn't matter anymore. You have me and you have the Rogues and you can have whoever you want. You are just as perfect as you seem to think the Rogues are. I won't ever think otherwise, no matter how firmly you yourself believe it. Because I'm right. Just, find a way to talk to the Rogues, okay? Talk to the Rogues and you'll see that I'm right."

Wally felt that traitorous, hated, beautiful blossom of hope flare to life in his chest, daring to sway his mind. Eyes still closed, Wally whispered, "Not tonight?"

"Not tonight." Freddie confirmed.

"Alright. I'll do it. As soon as I'm able to, I'll talk to the Rogues." Wally said, feeling like the clouds of his heart had lifted, allowing the sun to shine on the flower of hope. He wasn't willing to allow himself to believe that the Rogues might really care about him like Freddie seemed to think they did, but he was willing to allow the Rogues to convince him that they care. With that thought, Wally finally opened his eyes and smiled at Freddie, pulling out of the hug and smirking a little, "Race you to the diner nearby."

Freddie gave him an affronted look as the ginger got into running position, "Like I'm stupid enough to race a speedster!" A contemplative expression covered the portion of his face that was visible before Freddie grinned and actually launched himself onto Wally's back. The ginger had to stagger for a few steps before he regained his balance. Freddie pointed in a random direction and shouted, "Onward, noble steed!"

Wally glanced around to make sure that no one was looking anywhere near where they were standing before saying, "You asked for it." And then he flew off, dust clouds and lightning flying in his wake.

JJJJJJ

Jade stood in the center of the ring of supervillains that made up the core of the Light. As far as she understood, she was here for a mission briefing, but the frowns the leaders were aiming at her made her start to rethink that. Luthor sounded almost… panicked when he asked, "Where is Momentum?" Ah, so that's why they were in such a mood. Honestly, they were lucky that Wally was a moron who couldn't see the most obvious signs. Cheshire had overheard a conversation between Luthor and Ra's al Ghul about why Luthor had such an interest in the ginger speedster. The thought of what Luthor was planning made Jade's skin crawl, but Cheshire was stronger than that and she wouldn't betray Ra's al Ghul for some kid.

Maintaining an even tone, Cheshire answered, "He's off site at the moment. He went to a park in Central and he's got him comms on him. Would you like me to call him in?"

Luthor surged upwards in his seat, eyes wide and alarmed – it was the most emotion Jade had ever seen the man exhibit. Luthor hissed, "Who let him offsite?"

"I did." Cheshire frowned. What was the big deal? They can't seriously think that he was going to run. The Light had Wally so wrapped around their fingers that he would never leave. Jade firmly ignored the voice in the back of her mind that whispered how similar Artemis and Wally were.

Ra's al Ghul stared at her, somehow looking like he was staring straight through her mask, "Momentum was never to leave this compound. There are unknown factors in the outside world that would not be conducive towards the plans we have for him."

Cheshire resisted the urge to clench her fists and lower her head submissively. She'd grown up. She wasn't that scared little girl who just wanted her father to stop telling her how to kill someone with every new knick knack she picked up. She respected Ra's al Ghul because he was intelligent and strong and everything anyone would want in a leader. She wasn't a kid who knew too much about the bad parts of the world anymore. She was an assassin and she would not be cowed by his disappointment. Jade spoke clearly, "I was not given any such instructions."

"Boo _oo_ ring! This is all  _boring_. The crazy mask lady said that the speedy brat had his comms with him. Just call him back already. Don't sit there and argue about it." Klarion paused for a second before, "Don't give me that look Teekl! Other people's names are stupid, so I don't have to remember them!" Despite her best judgement, Jade felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips. She knew how much it sucked to be a kid – immortal or not – stuck in this kind of life. It broke her heart every time a new kid walked into this compound. But moments where the kids forgot about the life they lived and acted like normal teenagers (or sometimes, sadly, younger) made her day. Every time she acted the hard drill sergeant so the kids had something to bond over was worth it just to see them smile and goof off like they're supposed to be able to. It was something she'd never had, but that didn't mean that all these other kids shouldn't get to have it either.

Savage rolled his eyes, but agreed, "Call the boy. Tell him to return immediately."

Cheshire nodded and put a hand to her ear, switching the device on and to the right wavelength, "Momentum. Report in."

" _Yeah, what's up?_ " Came the only slightly delayed response. Good. Jade had been a little worried that he was going to ditch the device. The kid had a rebellious streak in him after all.

"You need to come back to the compound immediately. The higher-ups need to see you." Cheshire responded, glancing up at said higher-ups to make sure she inferred that correctly. Queen Bee's nod of approval told her she was right.

Wally whined into the earpiece, " _But I don't want to… I'm actually enjoying myself and I know that they're just going to be a buzzkill. Ugh, fine. I'll be there in a minute._ "

Narrowing her eyes, Cheshire snapped out, "I want you here in forty five seconds."

" _Hey, that's not fair! A minute!_ " Wally argued back.

Raising her eyebrow even though literally no one could see it (although, sometimes Cheshire was pretty sure that the Brain had put some sort of see-through-vision thing in his… container just to amuse himself), Cheshire smirked, "You're down about fifteen seconds by now."

Cursing, Wally cut the comms off with a burst of wind. True to Cheshire's demand, Wally there within the forty five seconds. He glared at her as he caught his breath, only slightly winded from the trip. Even though Jade was constantly surrounded by metahumans and people who never really counted as human, things like this still amazed her. He just ran a little over a hundred miles in forty five seconds – probably less since she'd started counting down when she said the number – and he was barely out of breath. She didn't think she'd ever stop being amazed by that.

Wally only then seemed to notice the other people in the room (even though he purposefully came to the command center and she all but told him that she was with the heads at that moment) and he straightened up, falling into a more easily defensible position without being overly obvious about it. The stance wasn't one that Cheshire had taught him – it wasn't one that she knew – but it was obviously defensive. Jade had a feeling that this was a stance that he'd taught himself over his years on the street. It broke her heart that he didn't even know what it all is that he needed to protect himself from. She wouldn't betray Ra's al Ghul, though. He would have to find out the hard way.

"Cheshire said you wanted me?" He asked cautiously. His expression showed that he was irritated and scared all at once and, honestly, the mask he threw up to hide it was actually pretty good, but the boy was playing with the skilled gamers now and he'd have to do better than that. They'd work on that in their next session.

Luthor had regained his cool now that he knew where his precious acquisition was, "There seems to have been a mistake where Cheshire wasn't correctly informed. You are not to leave this compound unless on a mission. We don't want anything to happen to you while you're still in training. We ask that you stay here and make do with what you have here. If you need something else, we can get that for you, but you cannot get it yourself. Is that understood?"

Wally's eyes flashed dangerously, "The only reason there would have been a mistake in the communication of the rules there would be if I was the exception. You're seriously telling me that I'm the only one who's not allowed out of here? Are you seriously trying to tell me that I can't leave unless it's with your permission?"

"You decided to join." Savage announced, eyebrow raised imperiously. Jade realized that Savage hated Wally and was enjoying his discomfort immensely.

Several more emotions passed through Wally's eyes, but they were too fast for even Cheshire to decipher. The emotion his eyes settled on, though, was all too easy to read. The resignation in his eyes was echoed in his voice when he sighed, "Am I the exception to any other rule, or just that one?"

"In so far, you are only the exception to that singular rule." The Brain supplied helpfully.

Wally laughed bitterly, "Great. Can I go now? Don't worry, I won't leave the building." His jaw was clenched and his fists were vibrating slightly and his eyes were like chipped emeralds and Jade just wanted him to go back to the easygoing, funny kid that he was when they were training.

Ra's al Ghul shook his head, "Not quite yet. You will be joining Cheshire and Sportsmaster on a mission." Cheshire's head whipped up. No one had told her this. She didn't want her father anywhere near Wally! That man tainted everything he touched and he was just going to hurt the speedster. She couldn't do anything about it, though. It was only a little bit ironic when she felt that same resignation she'd seen and hated so much in Wally's face just moments earlier.

Wally's back straightened and he looked straight at Luthor and Cheshire was so proud when he voice didn't shake when he said, "What do we have to do?"


	23. Double Agents

BBBBBB

There was a lot for Barry to be doing. He was swamped with work and, for the first time in a long time, he didn't feel like he had enough time to get it all done. All the petty thieves and the murderers and the rapists were coming out of the woodworks and burying the CCPD's forensic department with cases. The smalltime criminals seemed to think that since the Rogues had all but disappeared for a little bit, they had free reign over the city. Grodd was doing his best to let them know that, no, they did not have control; he did actually, but it wasn't working all that well. That just meant that Barry had to work overtime at the station and then barely get a chance to kiss his wife on the cheek before he was pulled back out into the city because Gorilla Grodd was having a hissy fit over territory again.

That was all just his regular day to day activities. That didn't include the fact that the Justice League was working in overdrive to take the Light down. There was still the matter of a mole in the Team and the Light's interest in the Rogues and the fact that they stole  _something_ from STAR Labs when they split the world in two and Wally being completely missing and – The Justice League was in overdrive.

Barry had basically been put in charge of All Things Rogue, so it was basically his job to figure out why the Light wanted the Rogues/get in contact with the Rogues/figure out where Wally was/get Wally away from the Light and really, he didn't have enough time to deal with his cases from his actual paid job. There was too much to do and too little time.

That meant that he was especially irritated when his Flash phone (what? Batman got a Bat Phone. It was only fair that he had his own version) rang suddenly. He couldn't ignore it, though, because there were only a select few who had the number and a lot of them were Rogues. So he pulled the phone up to his ear and said, "Hi! Your friendly Central City speedster here. How can I help you?" He low key hoped that the person on the other end could hear his irritation and would just hang up.

The person didn't hang up. Instead they said uncertainly, " _This is the Flash, right? Actually, definitely, positively, the Flash?_ "

Well, that was weird. And it was enough to get the Flash's attention, no matter how busy he was. Anyone who had this phone number was given it because they knew him. Voice cautious, the Flash asked, "Yes, this is the Flash. Who is this?"

The other voice was a lot calmer and more relaxed when the man spoke next, " _Oh good. I mean, I was pretty sure that he wasn't lying when he gave me the number, but I wanted to make sure. Like, maybe someone stole your phone or something._ "

"Who is this?" The Flash asked, more threatening this time. Had someone stolen the number from one of the few people he trusted it to? How did they get the number?

The voice startled and answered quickly, " _Oh, sorry man! I got carried away. I've never really done anything remotely like this before. I, uh… the name's Patrick – you ain't getting more than that - and I, well, I have powers and, and I want to do good with them. I know this kid – real nice kid and all – and he gave me your number. Said if I really wanted to be a hero then I should call you up. I mean, if you're busy or whatever or if you don't want to help, then no big deal. You do you and all that. Just, I was looking for some help to get started._ "

Flash sat up further in his seat. What kids had he given his phone number to? The Rogue kids. So it was either Hartley, James, or Wally that gave this man – Patrick – his number. Trying to contain his excitement, Flash said, "I'm always willing to help out a new hero, but, and I hate to do this, I'm going to need some help from you first. I have way too much to do, but I think you can help me with at least one part of it. Do you know the name of the kid who gave you the number?"

Patrick sounded a strange mixture of hopeful and regretful when he answered, " _I'm so relieved that you'll help me, but, man, this kid's my friend. I may have only met him the once and only talked to him on the phone a couple of times, but he's still more loyal than most people I've known. I can't just give up his identity like that. Honor among thieves and all that jazz._ "

"Wait, you were a thief? Nevermind, we can work that out later. I'm pretty sure I already know who it was because I've only given my number out to a small group of people and even fewer are kids. Can you at least tell me if I guess his name?" Barry asked, crossing his fingers and praying that Patrick understood his need to know this.

It seemed like he did because, after a moment, Patrick sighed, " _Alright, I can do that much. No hints, though!_ "

"Got it. No hints." Barry agreed, letting out a breath in relief before asking, "Was his name Hartley?"

There was a pause before, " _What kind of name is Hartley?_ "

Barry laughed, moving on to the next most likely one, "How about Wally?"

The pause was a lot longer this time before Patrick said resignedly, " _Yeah, that's the name. He said his name was Wally._ "

Barry's exhale of relief was a lot stronger that time. He physically sagged with the force of it. This was it. This was exactly what he'd needed. Eyes still closed in happiness, Barry asked, "I've been looking for him. He's not in trouble!" He added that hastily as he remembered what Patrick had said about honor among thieves before continuing, "He's really not in trouble with me. More like, he's missing and I need to find him. There's a dangerous group that's he's fallen into the hands of and I need to get him out, but I don't know where he is and I don't have a way to contact him."

" _That kid gets into the worst kinds of messes._ " Patrick lamented before continuing, " _Well, I've got his number. I can try to get in contact with him and set up a meeting between the two of you? What if this group that's got him won't let him go?_ "

"I don't know. We have to get him out of there. First of all, I can't stand the thought of them hurting him. Second of all, if they him right, then he's extremely dangerous. Especially if they give him some training. I'm just going to hope that they let him out and that he agrees to a meet, but if not… if not then I'll just figure something out." Flash said, wearily rubbing a hand across his face. With every new solution comes five new problems. He honestly shouldn't expect anything else at this point.

Patrick's voice was careful when he suggested quietly, " _I meant what I said about him being my friend. I don't know him at all, really, but he still is important to me. Being a hero now is important too. I say, why don't I kill do birds with one stone? If there isn't a way for him to come meet you, you could send me in. Whatever this group is, I'm sure they could use another lackey. I've got powers. I've got a background as a criminal. It's not that big of a stretch – haha, that's actually pretty funny, but probably only to me. Anyways – not that big of a stretch to think that they'd want me to join up. Superpowered criminal? They've gotta have a use for me somewhere. I'll go in, grab Wally, get out. I'll have saved a friend and done some hero work in the process._ "

"It's too dangerous." Barry frowned. The Justice League didn't know a lot about the Light, but they did know that they were extremely dangerous and there was a good chance that Patrick could be found out and killed in there and Barry didn't want – didn't need – that on his conscience.

" _I don't think I really care if you think it's too dangerous or not. I've got a lifetime of crime to repent for and the friend who gave me a way out in danger. He's just a kid and he's in the middle of that danger. Are you saying I should leave him in there? I'll go with or without your permission. It'd just help to have a hero prep me a little bit first._ " Patrick argued. Barry marveled at Wally's ability to get under people's skin and worm his way all the way to their hearts. There was just something about him that was so loveable. And somehow, he was the only one who couldn't see it.

Blowing out a gust of air, Barry rubbed his forehead, "Okay, okay. But getting in contact with him and trying to set up a meeting is step one. We're only falling on the infiltration as a last resort, alright? Call me again when you have any sort of information and we'll go from there. Good?"

Patrick answered immediately, " _Yeah, that's good. I'll call you back later, Flash._ " He disconnected before Barry had a chance to answer and, somehow, Barry knew that he was already trying to get in contact with Wally. It warmed the speedster's heart to know that his nephew had so many people looking out for him.

Also, that, at least, solved some of his problems. He only had a whole slew of them left. He needed to find the Rogues. They were out there somewhere doing who knows what. Red Arrow had reported that the Rogues had kidnapped him and demanded that he tell them where the ginger speedster was. The ruby archer hadn't bothered explaining why the Rogues thought that he would be at all knowledgeable on the whereabouts of the errant teenaged speedster. Instead, he'd launched into a report on what his mole with the Light had found out. Apparently, they were going to be sending Sportsmaster and Cheshire out on a mission to steal something from the STAR Labs in Oregon. The informant hadn't been able to figure out what they were going to steal, only that it had something to do with the echinoderm that had been stolen from the STAR Labs during the split worlds debacle.

Barry sincerely hoped that Roy's informant was right because, not only was there a good portion of the League waiting out there right now for someone to go in and steal something from the lab, but also he reputation as a new League member was on the line. He'd just gotten in and if he started off by giving them info that ended up being wrong, there was going to be trouble. His word would forever be tainted by the memory of his first info being wrong.

Green Arrow hadn't let the kid (although, he really wasn't a kid anymore, was he? Were any of them?) go after the supposed heist on the Oregon branch, instead convincing the ruby archer that he should work with the Team a little more. Since he was closer in age to them and a newer member of the League, there was a good chance that a lot of his first assignments were going to revolve around working with, backing up, or training the Young Justice League and it wasn't a bad idea to start him off on that as soon as possible. It also wasn't a bad idea to keep him away from the results of his info in case it turned out to be unreliable. That isn't really something someone wants to be there for.

Sighing and scrubbing his face again, Barry slumped down over the desk in his office, letting his eyes slide shut. He heard the door open and shut behind him before long, slim fingers started gently massaging his neck and back. He mumbled, "Have I ever told you how perfect you are, Iris?"

He could practically feel her smile as she said, "Only a thousand times, sweetheart."

"It'll never stop being true, though." He mumbled. Honestly, Barry was surprised she could understand him.

She chuckled a little bit and gently pulled him up into a hug from behind, "Come on. You need to get to sleep. You can't solve all your problems in one night. If you don't sleep some, you won't solve any."

"See? Perfect." Barry responded sagely. Iris laughed all the way to their bedroom where the two curled against each other and just slept.

DDDDDD

Roy was joining Red Tornado on Den Mother Duty for a couple of days. There was a good chance that this was going to turn into a colossal mess that would end up in a slew of injuries, but there was also a chance that this could end with Roy enjoying himself and deciding to stay with the Team more often, or even permanently. That wasn't a likely outcome, but a kid could hope, right? Besides, Dick wanted to talk to Roy about some of the things that were going on with Wally. With everything that was happening with a potential mole on the Team and the Rogues disappearing and the Light becoming a bigger and bigger problem, the two hadn't gotten a chance to really talk in a long time and Dick really, really needed someone to talk to. And some of the things he needed to talk about he couldn't really go up to Bruce and say.

Bruce was for talking about school or his family – and that was on the rare occasions that the two were able to work past their awkwardness enough to actually talk to each other. Alfred was there for talking about family and Bruce (who was family in his own right). Roy, Roy was there for everything else. He was Dick's brother and he trusted him with just about everything.

Of course, though, the universe hated him and decided that Dick wasn't going to talk to  _anybody_  about anything because the moment he entered his room in the Cave, he was immediately on the defensive. There were people in his room. It took him a second to realize that there weren't just people in his room. There were  _Rogues_ in his room. And, unfortunately, he'd already shut the door. The room was completely soundproof, so no one would be able to hear him to come back him up.

When he looked closer, though, he realized that none of the Rogues were armed. It didn't even look like they'd gone through his stuff at all. Everything looked exactly like it did when he'd left it the night before, except for the crumpled bedding where Trickster was curled in a ball and actually purring. The rest of the Rogues were standing around the teenager and staring at him impassively.

Narrowing his eyes, Robin said slowly, "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I believe there might be." Captain Cold said, continuing to stare at him impassively. Robin had met the villain before – had met all of them before – when working with the Flash on a case or two and he'd come to generally like the ragtag groups of villains because of their humor and their general light-heartedness. There wasn't any of the light-heartedness now. Now, Dick could see how the Rogues came to control Central's criminal underground. He could see how they would be ruthless enough to fight their way from the bottom and put fear into everyone else in the city.

After a pause, Robin inwardly rolls his eyes and prompts, "And that would be… what, exactly?"

Cold got right down to it, voice like ice, "You want to take down the Light. We want the Light away from the Rogues – all the Rogues. I believe there might be an overlap in our wants. If you work with us, we can destroy the Light."

"And why should I trust you?" Robin said, voice just as cold. What angle were the Rogues playing at? Had the Light already gotten ahold of the Rogues and put them up to this? Or was there something else going on?

Captain Cold raised an eyebrow before answering, "When did I ask you to trust us?"

Robin raised an eyebrow of his own, "How do you expect the Team to work with you without trusting you?"

"I never said the Team. I said you. And from what I've gathered, you don't trust much of anyone. Have you trusted this precious Team with your identity? Yet you can work with them. Team-ups do end up working better with trust, but when criminals are involved, team-ups can usually work just fine as long as you have the same goal and a driving need to complete that goal. And that, I believe, we both have." Cold responded. It was bordering on creepy the way his voice hadn't displayed any emotion the entire time they were talking. Even Batman couldn't remain emotionless for that long.

Robin hesitated before, "Give me the details before I agree to this."

Captain Cold nodded approvingly and spoke, "We need to find a better place to meet because the Light knows where this base is and I don't doubt that they have some sort of surveillance in here. I don't know how extensive it is, though. We'll leave that up to you, though I reserve the right to veto. Good so far?"

"Yeah." Robin said hesitantly, already running through potential meetup spots and a way to 'accidentally' come across the potential surveillance in the Cave so as to not blow the Rogues' cover.

Cold nodded again and went on methodically, "The Rogues have joined the Light. We made a deal with the Light that said that if we kept you guys out of the way of their plans, then we would get to see Momentum again to try to convince him to come back to us." Robin stilled at the mention of Momentum. The Light was using Momentum separately from the Rogues? They were purposely keeping them far away from each other? What did the Light want from Momentum that they were willing to go to this much trouble? Cold continued, "We told them that if the Light wanted us to do the job correctly, then we needed to know the plans. That means that we've got info on what the Light is doing almost all the time. Obviously there are things that they aren't sharing, but we still know more than you do."

Robin resisted the urge to drum his fingers against his thigh restlessly. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and said, "The Justice League already has a mole inside the Light. We've got info on their plans."

One of the other Rogues snorted and the rest smirked. Robin felt like he was missing something. Captain Cold rolled his eyes and promptly shattered Robin's world, "Momentum is the informant and he's giving out false info. Right now, he's got half the Justice League somewhere up in Oregon waiting for a heist that is going to happen, but that has nothing to do with the Light's actual plans. Momentum, Cheshire, and Sportsmaster are somewhere else doing something that's actually relevant towards the plans. You aren't getting that location until you agree to the deal. You help us, we'll help you and, in the end, we'll both win."

Robin's eyes widened beneath the mask, his brain running a hundred miles a minute. If this was true, then this was really bad. If the Rogues were telling the truth, then the Team needed to get out there ASAP because the JL probably wouldn't believe Robin and likely wouldn't be able to get there in time anyways. If the Rogues were lying, then there was a good chance that this is a trap and the Team would be in serious trouble because, as stated earlier, the JL probably wouldn't be able to get there in time.

What did the Rogues have to gain by sending Robin into a trap, though? He's a hero, so there's always that particular motivator, but the Rogues have never really sent a hero into someone else's trap. Then again, the Rogues have never been known to work  _for_  another villain group. Why the change in MO? The only explanation would be either what they said, or the Rogues were being coerced some other way. They were far too proud to call themselves the lackeys.

If they were telling the truth about Momentum, then there was a good chance that they were telling the truth about everything. If they were lying about Momentum, then this was definitely a trap. All Robin needed was to find out if the bit about Momentum was true or not. What to ask to find out, though?

Captain Cold stared impassively at Robin as the young bird asked slowly, "How did the Light take Momentum from you in the first place?" Robin knew the story of how Wally ended up with the Light. He just needed to make sure that the Rogues gave him that same one.

When Captain Cold gave him the full story from Momentum telling them about his past (he didn't say  _what_  that past was, even though Dick was dying of curiosity) all the way to the Light tricking Wally into staying with them, Robin knew that they were telling the truth. He wasn't sure what to feel about that. On the one hand, it was nice the know that the Team had the Rogues as allies in this battle, but on the other hand, that meant that Momentum was purposely giving false information to the Justice League in order to make sure that the Light succeeded. And that hurt more than it should have. Especially since Wally had told him that the reason he needed to stay with the Light was because he was giving info to the JL. Robin had thought that meant that he was helping the good side. Apparently he was wrong.

Pushing all that to the side for a moment, Robin debated his options. He knew that he needed to get that location from the Rogues. If he didn't then he was letting a crime go with knowledge of it occurring and that was as bad as committing the crime itself. He just wasn't comfortable about keeping this agreement with the Rogues a secret from the Team. Sure, they were right when they said that Robin didn't trust the Team entirely. He hadn't trusted them with his identity yet and wasn't planning on doing so for a while. There was still a large possibility of a mole hiding somewhere in the Team and Robin couldn't risk his identity being known to that mole. Technically, then, he couldn't risk this being known to the mole either, but he didn't want to keep this from the Team.

If he had even the smallest inkling of an idea as to who the mole might be then he could share this secret with some of the Team members so it wasn't a burden he had to bear alone, but, even with his extensive research into the topic, he had no clue who the mole was. Aqualad had been his friend for a long time and seemed endlessly loyal to his King, but he didn't know who his parents were. Some people would do anything if they were promised a chance to find their parents. Artemis genuinely seemed to want to be a hero and her eyes would realistically light up every time she saved someone – so much so that Robin could never doubt her drive to be a hero. But she was also dedicated to her mother; if someone threatened Paula Crock, then Artemis would do anything.

M'gann seemed too innocent to truly be conniving some sort of dastardly deed behind their backs, but she was a foreigner on this world who was obviously hiding a secret. Someone with the power of telekinesis would be a good person to turn into a spy. She might not have even known what she was doing at the beginning. Conner definitely didn't have the hang of lying yet, so Robin couldn't believe that he was purposely deceiving them, but he was a clone created by Cadmus – which Robin is pretty certain is a subsidiary of the Light – and who knows what kind of programming they have burned into him? Martian Manhunter declared Conner clean from all attempts at programming his mind, but there was always a chance that the Light slipped something in there that he wouldn't notice. The Light was able to get a DNA sample from Superman. There was no telling what else they could have gotten on the rest of the League.

And Zatanna wouldn't even be an option – because the mole action had started before she'd even been a member of the Team – but she was really close to Artemis and M'gann. If either the archer or the Martian was the mole, then there was a chance that they could have pulled Zatanna into it. The magician had to be disillusioned with the League after they allowed Zatara to put on the Helm and permanently become Doctor Fate. Maybe one of the others had given her a promise from the Light that they would remove the helmet and help her get her father back.

Every single one of his teammates were potential threats. The fact that the Rogues didn't want Robin telling anyone told the young acrobat that the Rogues didn't know who the mole was either. That begged a question, though. Robin asked curiously, "Why me?"

"You know Momentum. You're his friend." Cold responded, not a single change in inflection.

Robin felt his blood turn to ice, "What do you mean by that? I faced off against him in Gorilla City and again when Klarion was running the spell. Sure, we've talked more than he's talked to other members of the Team, but that hardly makes us friends."

"Don't play dumb, kid. Look, we don't know what your identity is, if that's what you're so freaked out about. When Wally told us about himself, he talked about making a friend. He didn't say anything about you, just that he'd been texting you periodically. We're overprotective. So, that night, I hacked into the cameras around Central. I knew the places he liked to go, including that park. So I figured out the days he went to that park and I found the only one where someone sat down and talked to him. It was a black haired kid wearing dark sunglasses. That wouldn't have done a thing for helping figure out who you were, but then I saw something else in the camera. There was a group of kids playing in a field not that far away. Some of your teammates don't really hide themselves all that well. It wasn't hard to figure out who they were and it especially wasn't all that hard to figure out who you were with them." Cold set out all the facts like he was discussing the weather, only the hard edge of his tensed shoulders betraying that he was feeling anything at the moment.

Robin was definitely feeling at the moment. He knew he was getting chalant, but he couldn't help it. This was like one of his worst nightmares. Sure, Cold had said that he didn't know who Robin was, just that he was Wally's mystery friend, but that didn't really help. That still made Robin feel like all the air was getting sucked out of the room and there wasn't a single thing left to help him.

Mirror Master spoke up suddenly, "Look, kid. We don't approve of how much time Momentum's been spending around heroes, but he didn't know that you were a hero, so that wasn't really his fault. We don't like your friendship and we don't like goody-two shoes heroes. But we have to do something to save Momentum whether we like it or not and you're the only one we trust to not be the mole. Because if you were the mole, then you'd have taken Wally to the Light a whole lot sooner than he was taken by them. You're our only chance to pull this off."

Glancing from face to face to face, Robin vaguely thought that maybe this was just a dream and that he'd wake up from this nightmare and everything would be fine. He'd just get up and talk to Roy like he'd been planning to and it'd be wonderful and beautiful and amazing and none of his identity would have been revealed to the Rogues. But, inside, Dick knew that this wasn't a dream and that this was really happening. The Rogues knew and they needed his help.

Dick groaned inwardly; Bats was going to  _kill_  him. Out loud, Robin said, "Alright. I'll do it."

LLLLLL

Luthor walked side by side down the hallway with Vandal Savage. He'd been waiting for this moment for a while now and it'd finally come. Savage was saying, "I do not understand your obsession with that boy, Momentum. He displays no remarkable traits and seems to have little to add to any conversation. You were reckless in your reach to obtain him."

The answering smirk was lethal as Luthor responded, "Savage, I will admit that I have been holding out on you. There is a further reason that I am interested in Momentum and it has nothing to do with the Light's plans. Of course, this further reason could prove useful in our plans, but I will admit to the creation of the project having been for selfish reasons."

"Project?" Savage asked sharply, eyes flashing dangerously. Luthor knew that he hated when unknown variables were thrown into his plans.

Luthor grinned, all teeth, "Yes, project. I've had it up and running for many years now, but I want Wally to be a part of it. I call it the Everyman Project."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys know what the Everyman Project is, this is my headcannon version of the early stages of the Project. If you don't know what it is, don't worry about looking it up. I'll explain it later!


	24. First Mission

WWWWWW

"Hey, so what are we exactly doing here?" Wally asked, impatiently tapping his foot on the ground, the appendage blurring more and more as more and more time passed in this  _infernal_  device. He  _hated_  moving vehicles. He wasn't sure if a boat counted in that area, but he still hated them. They were going  _so slow_. No one seemed to understand that if he ran them there, the thing would be over so much faster. But no, the time between him running one and running the other was too great and the treat to the stranded teammate was too much. So instead they had to deal with slowly escaping by boat. That made so much more sense.

Cheshire touched her fingers to the brow of her mask, tilting her head upwards as if hoping for divine intervention before turning that mask back towards Wally, "Did you read the mission dossier at all? Even a little bit of it?"

Wally rolled his eyes under his goggles, "Of course I read it. That tells me what my role is in this whole little mission, but it doesn't tell me why we're doing it or what your parts are."

"You don't need to know that. All you need to know is your role." Cheshire ground out.

Wally knew he was pressing his luck, but he said anyways, "How am I supposed to support you as a teammate if I don't know what you're doing and therefore don't know if something is going wrong?"

"This isn't your little small crime team of dorks, the Rogues. This is the Light, kid. We do things differently here. Now shut up, sit down, and stop tapping your foot!" Sportsmaster growled, clenching the side of the boat to the point that it creaked ominously.

Eying the spot where Sportsmaster's hand still clutched the boat, Wally complied. There was a dismissive sounding cluck from Cheshire and Wally glanced up quickly to see what he'd done wrong, but he realized that the dismissive sound had been aimed at Sportsmaster. Throughout the mission briefing and their time on this (slow, slow,  _ssslllooowww_ ) boat, Wally had noticed some serious tension going on between the two villains. Well, it was more tension from Cheshire. Sportsmaster didn't seem to really care about either of them, but Cheshire was definitely glaring at the other member of their trio throughout the trip. Things might work differently with the Light than with the Rogues, but Wally wasn't all too sure that was a good thing. At least in the Rogues, Cold never put two arguing team members on the same assignment. He almost always waited until they were cooled off. That was why their team arrangements were mixed up all the time – the Rogues were constantly getting in fights with each other. Maybe the Light just didn't know that Cheshire and Sportsmaster have some clearly problematic issues with each other?

"What are you looking at?" Cheshire barked.

"Nothing!" Wally defended, making sure that he stared straight at the pile of rope in the corner of the boat. This was a tetchy group. Yikes.

It was only moments later that Sportsmaster huffed, "Get out. We're here."

Wally raised his eyebrow at the veritable swamp they were surrounded by. The Orleans Parish. Just where he always wanted to go. He crinkled his nose at the smell surrounding them. Wally turned to make a comment about it to Cheshire, but when he looked, she'd disappeared. Blinking at the sudden loss of the only person who was friendly (and even that was a stretch), Wally turned hesitantly to Sportsmaster, "Um, where'd -,"

"Did I say you could speak?" Sportsmaster growled.

Wally blinked again, hunching in on himself a little bit, "I didn't hear anything about you being named team leader or anything. I don't see why it should matter what you say I can do or not."

The look Sportsmaster gave him was appraising through his mask, eyes glittering darkly, "You've got some spunk, brat."

"Uh, thanks?" Wally said, eyebrows furrowing.

"No problem." Sportsmaster answered easily. Wally just kind of gaped at him. This man was insane. Actually, certifiably insane.

After a few more seconds of silence where Wally just shifted around a little, trying to case the area without making it obvious like Digger had taught him, he opened his mouth again, "So -,"

He was once again cut off by Sportsmaster, "Orders or no orders, you aren't going to be alive to keep that spunk if you keep talking." There were those creepy glittering eyes again. Wally shivered a little bit, but nodded obediently. No sense in ticking off his own teammates. This group seemed to have enough problems as it is. No need to add more drama into that.

Apparently, that was a good decision because he wouldn't have even heard the footsteps coming up behind them if he'd been talking. Whipping around, he saw that Cheshire had already approached the unwanted guest – Artemis, from the Team that was giving the Light so many problems – and was fighting the archer with everything she had. Wally realized that Cheshire had been taking it easy on him during training.

Glancing nervously at his partner, Wally decided to risk it and asked, "Should I go help her?"

"Against Artemis? Let them fight. They're pretty evenly matched. I want to see who wins this." Sportsmaster said. Of course, everything went downhill from there because an arrow came flying out of nowhere. As it flew through the air, it unfurled into a series of ropes that came to wrap around the assassin, effectively tying her up. Sportsmaster gave the scene an unimpressed look (or, at least, that's what it seemed like from the bits of his face that Wally could see through the mask) before sighing, "I guess you should go help her. I'm sure she can get away on her own, but the train's coming soon and we need to leave." Wally nodded and raced off.

By the time he finished getting his orders from Sportsmaster and ran over to the fight, Red Arrow had joined Artemis in standing over Cheshire. Wally felt his heart freeze in his chest as he allowed time to slow around him for a moment. He couldn't let this affect him while he was fighting. He needed to get over this before he launched onto the scene. To win this and complete a mission for the Light, Wally needed to fight Roy. He needed to fight Roy and take him down and possibly hurt him.

Roy would understand, though, right? He would get that Wally needed to maintain his image with the Light and would need to do what that asked, even if it meant hurting Roy. Then again, maybe he wouldn't because Roy didn't even know how deeply embroiled he himself was in the Light's plans. Either way, this was going to hurt them and their friendship. Wally promised himself that he'd talk to Roy about it after they finished here. Steeling himself, Wally made himself see Roy as the enemy – as the hero Red Arrow – before he ran into the fight.

Momentum made sure to reign in the force of his punch so it would only send Artemis flying instead of knocking her brains out or something. He didn't want to kill them. He glanced over to see if Cheshire needed him, but she'd escaped her bonds and was pinning Red Arrow beneath her. Well, looks like there was no problem there. At least, that's what he thought until he saw what Cheshire was really doing. She was kissing him! She was kissing Red Arrow!

Wally honestly could not do anything but sit there and stare at the spectacle before him. He felt kind of like a creeper, but at the same time, he was so horrified that he couldn't look away. It was kind of like a horror movie.

Too late, he realized that there was a presence sneaking up behind him. Luckily for him, though, Artemis caught sight of the horror before she got a chance to, like, bludgeon him or something. Her mouth fell open too and the two of them – hero and villain – just sat there and stared at their respective teammates with pure horror etched into every visible portion of their face. Wally couldn't help but whispering, "This is one of the worst things I've ever seen."

Artemis whispered back, "I'm so scarred right now."

Wally nodded, "I can never un-see this."

Artemis nodded back, "I need brain bleach. So much brain bleach."

Just then, Wally's earpiece crackled to life and Sportsmaster's voice announced, " _I've got the package. Cheshire, get out of here now. Momentum, follow behind the boat and make sure that no one catches up._ " For a brief second, Cheshire breaks out of her kiss and turns to face Wally's direction, but Wally somehow knows that she's not looking at him. Cheshire is looking at the girl standing dumbfounded beside him.

That brief second was all it took, though, as it broke Artemis out of her stupor. Cheshire flipped up and started running in the opposite direction of the boat – deeper into the swampland. Red Arrow was still blinking dumbly at the range of trees above him, so Wally decided that then was a good time to get going. He raced out over the water and trailed behind Sportsmaster's boat. Out of the blue, a rain of arrows flew out towards him. Wally narrowed his eyes and caught most of them. The only one that made it through was a tracker arrow that latched onto the edge of the boat. Racing closer to the motor, Wally snatched the tracker arrow and broke it.

As he was letting it fall to the bottom of the lake, Wally tripped. Actually, no, that wasn't right. It'd been forever since he tripped while running on water. He was far too used to it for that. Some _thing_ had tripped him. Faceplanting the water, Wally spluttered and kicked out. Whatever it was that had gripped his ankle and pulled him down wasn't letting go. Coughing at the water that had crashed into his lungs when he'd fallen unexpectedly, Wally flailed out, using his other foot to try to dislodge the hand (at least, it felt like a hand) that was wrapped around his ankles.

Wally could feel his face going through the stages of bruising as his face finally recognized that it just hardcore smashed into the water at superfast speeds. The grip around his ankle was becoming crushing as it tried to prevent him from getting away. Wally could feel bruises forming there, too. He'd fallen into the water unprepared and the weight dragging him down wasn't helping. Wally was having a hard time getting his bearings to be able to start swimming, so he was essentially just flailing around in the water and hoping that whoever had grabbed him didn't want him to actually drown.

Suddenly, a fact loomed out of the water, droplets sliding smoothly down dark skin and through pale hair. Gills across the neck flapped gently in the air. There, hand gripping his ankle and eyes serious, Aqualad stared at Wally. Well, there goes the hope that his captor wouldn't want him to drown. Why would Aqualad  _not_  want Wally to drown? Wally had captured him and hurt him just to manipulate his friends to let Wally leave.

Despite Wally's awkward flailing, Aqualad sat impassively in the water before saying, "You are only hurting yourself by struggling. Surrender and I will make sure we get to shore safely."

"Yeah right." Wally rasped, finally starting to tread the water, keeping himself above the edge of the murky depths. All he'd needed was something to focus on to give him his bearings. Wally continued, "Like you'd bring me safely to shore. Don't pretend like you don't hate me for what I did back in Gorilla City."

"I try very hard not to hate anyone, Momentum." Aqualad responded.

Wally narrowed his eyes at him and snorted (immediately regretting that decision as it made his throat and nose burn), "Sure. Keep telling yourself that. This generation's goody two shoes heroes are really taking it to a whole new level. Not hating anyone? Uh huh." He used his words as a distraction. It's what he's always done because it's always worked. If he just blathered on, then people would focus on that – either on his words or on ways to get him to stop – and they wouldn't focus on the fact that he was about to escape.

During his little impromptu speech, Wally started vibrating the leg that Aqualad was holding onto. It wouldn't be as effective as it should be since it was under the water, but it should feel rather uncomfortable.

Aqualad frowned down at the leg he held captive and then frowned at Wally, "What are you doing? Surrender." He glanced down at the leg again. That was all Wally needed.

Reacting quickly, Wally smashed his head into Aqualad's. That honestly only seemed to make him dizzy and Aqualad battle-ready. That certainly failed. Aqualad twisted them in the water, yanking Wally's leg down so Wally went under, barely getting in a lungful of air before he was submerged.

As Wally struggled to get to the surface, the hand on his leg disappeared, only to be replaced by a strong leg that held Wally's legs together under the surface. An arm came up behind him, wrapping around his throat and pulling Wally's head back – causing him to gasp and take in a mouthful of water.

Luckily, Aqualad brought them to the surface soon afterwards, giving Wally a moment to cough out the water and stop the tide of dizziness that had been overtaking him. Coughing, Wally panted, "That… was  _so_ … r-rude." He burst into another fit of coughing.

Aqualad responded mildly, "Your actions were not particularly civil either."

"Do… you always t-talk… like that? S-so… formal?" Wally gasped out, wriggling in the incredibly strong grip to try to get out.

Before Aqualad could answer, a different voice rang out over the area, "Need any help with that Aqualad?" Robin. Wally recognized the voice and the vague figure that was standing out on the shore line.

"We're here to help too if you need it.  _Someone_ lost Sportsmaster, so we don't need to be chasing after him." Artemis called out.

Red Arrow growled at her, "You lost Cheshire too, so don't talk."

"I managed to get a tracker on her. Something you failed to do." Artemis growled right back.

"Artemis, Red Arrow," Aqualad interrupted mildly, "This is not the time for a fight."

Wally huffed out a little laugh, "Oh no, don't worry about it. I'm totally cool with you guys arguing as I die via drowning over here. It's fine. I don't mind." Robin cackled out by the shore.

Aqualad almost seemed to be rolling his eyes with his voice alone when he responded, "You are not drowning. I am making that certain."

"Well, I feel like I'm drowning." Wally muttered under his breath. This was bad. This was really, really bad. How lame was he that he was getting caught on his first job? Useless, useless, useless! He wanted to scream at himself for his stupidity and then spend the next week in the training room. He needed to get better than this if he wanted to amount to anything. For a good portion of his life, he'd wanted nothing but to be able to survive to the next day. Now? Now he wants to have dreams and aspirations and he wants to succeed. He can't do that in this weak, useless state he is now. He needs to get better. First, though, that means escaping this.

Wally's eyes went cold and his grip went slack. The sudden change in weight (lessened though it may be in the water) made Aqualad's grip falter. Before the Atlantean had a chance to tighten that death grip again, Wally turned around and decked him. He might not have been able to form the perfect stance that Cheshire had drilled into him, but he could still land a pretty solid punch. While Aqualad was recovering, Wally placed his feet on Aqualad's midsection and kicked. The momentum pushed him and Aqualad far away from each other and served to distract Aqualad further. He was faced in the wrong direction and it'd take some serious running around to get his bearings again, but as long as it meant away, he was fine.

Wally started stroking towards the side of the waterway that didn't currently house a collection of teenaged heroes. He swam as fast as he possibly could because he could practically hear the archers getting their bows ready and then he could  _definitely_  hear something flying through the air. He reached land and dived out of the way just in time to be caught by the explosion of something (a Batarang? An arrow? Something completely different?).

He slammed against the trunk of a tree, but scrambled to his feet before anyone else could throw/shoot something at him.

Gasping in pain, Wally ran.

It took him longer than he would have liked to get to the warehouse that they were all supposed to meet up in. He'd had to run in the opposite direction for as long as it took for him to end up somewhere he recognized and then he'd had to make his way back to the warehouse. Plus, his lungs were still burning from practically drowning and he was relatively certain that he'd broken a few ribs slamming into that tree. Overall, he was not in a good mood when he made it to the warehouse. The sight of Red Arrow trying to creep into the building certainly doesn't help his mood any.

Wally rushed forward on silent feet and suddenly asked, "Honestly, all you need is a mustache and you'll be the perfect creeper. You do realize how disturbing you look right now, right?"

"Momentum." Red Arrow growled.

Wally raised an eyebrow, "You sound actually upset. How come?"

"Are you serious?" Red Arrow asked incredulously, flinging his arms out, "I trusted you!"

Wally narrowed his eyes, "I actually don't see where you're going with this."

"Half of the Justice League is watching a lab in Oregon because you told me that there was going to be something going down over there led by the Light. They won't believe a single thing I say from now on! Everything I've ever given them from you will suddenly be put under a microscope because your info was wrong this time. Did you do this on purpose?" Roy hissed at him.

Wally felt his heart stop in his chest. That was right. He'd told Roy that there was going to be a gig pulled at the STAR Labs in Oregon. Mind, there was actually a heist going on there that was orchestrated by the Light, but it wasn't anything all that important. It was just meant to cement Roy's informant – Wally – as reliable in the eyes of the Justice League. And it would have worked out perfectly, but somehow the Team knew to come here. Why were they here? How did they know? Was there another person who was actually working for the Justice League? No, they didn't know that his info was meant as a distractor. That meant that the Team had some sort of mole in the Light. Ugh, this was getting way too complicated. There were too many moles working for too many different people.

"I didn't give you false information, Red Arrow. There  _is_  going to be a heist at the lab. I didn't get a chance to tell you about this mission too. They just placed me on it and shipped me off." Wally defended, eyes wide and pleading under his goggles. He hated lying to Roy. He'd just discovered that he absolutely  _hated_  it. But what was he going to do? This was where he belonged. He was helping his people. He was a villain so he should help the villains. Besides, it wasn't so bad staying with the Light. Cheshire was pretty cool even if she was a savage taskmaster during training. And Wally had gotten pretty close to Cameron and some of the other teenaged villains running around. He was even building up some rep with some of the older villains. He was getting more friends, more training, and more underworld connections out of this thing than he'd ever imagined possible.

Roy stared at him for a moment, the mask hiding whatever he was feeling. At last, he commented, "When morning comes and I find out whether you've told the truth or not, I'll call you. We'll talk about this later."

Wally licked his lips nervously, but responded evenly, "I can't let you get in there."

"Seriously?" Roy hissed.

Wally shrugged, "Gotta do my job, man. Can't begrudge me that."

"I  _can_ , actually." Roy muttered.

Before Wally got a chance to respond, the wall blew up. Since he'd been standing closer to the portion of the wall that exploded, Wally was sent flying while Roy just sat there dumbfounded. A chunk of the wall flew past the two of them and hit the dark of night, making it curse. Wally stared unsteadily at the figure of Sportsmaster that appeared out of the darkness. Had he been  _spying_ on them? Or wait, maybe he was just there as backup? Wally's head was spinning so much he couldn't think straight. He could honestly say that this was the first time he'd been blown up twice in one day. This was getting actually irritating at this point.

At least, this time, he'd fallen on some relatively soft grass instead of the side of a tree. Mind, it didn't feel especially nice or anything since his ribs were still in the process of healing. With this latest jostle, there was a good chance that he was going to have to rebreak them to get them to heal right. Fantastic.

As he'd been lying pitifully on the ground, the fight had started around him. At some point, Robin and Aqualad had shown up and the two of them plus the two archers were causing problems for Cheshire and Sportsmaster. Wally and the two older villains might not make the most orthodox or functional team, but they were still on a team and Wally was not going to let them down.

Standing up and ignoring the pounding headache that ensued, Wally barreled into Robin, sending the shorter teen sprawling. Well, it had seemed like he was sprawling until he'd twisted and flipped back into a standing position that was now facing Wally. Stupid Bats. The two started kicking and hitting at each other, just like they had when they'd fought next to Klarion's spell. The difference was that, this time, Wally had been trained better. Sure, he hadn't trained for long, but Cheshire was nothing if not an incredible teacher. And sure, there was still no way that he was anywhere  _near_  the mini Bat's level, but he had his speed and that made up for a lot of the difference.

Still, it didn't make up for all of the difference and there was a good chance that Wally wouldn't be winning this battle. Luckily, though, he wasn't alone. Intentional or not, Sportsmaster had blocked a blunt headed arrow off of his arm guard, sending it careening off into the direction of Wally and Robin's fight.

In the brief moment that Robin had to duck the projectile, Wally swept his leg under the bird and punched him in the face, knocking him off his feet and backwards into the grass. Before he could recover, Wally was ripping his cape off and wrapping it around his arms. He knew that it wouldn't keep the hero for long, but he never needed long. He wasn't the fastest kid alive for nothing. Robin called out desperately, "Momentum, wait!" But Wally was gone.

He, Cheshire, and Sportsmaster were the guards for the weird experiments that the Brain (technically Monsieur Mallah too since the Brain never went anywhere without the monkey), Klarion, and Professor Ivo were doing in the warehouse on that echinoderm thing that they'd stolen a little ways back. The other two were obviously busy, so he needed to get closer to the actual location of the experiment they were supposed to be protecting. If any of them got through Cheshire or Sportsmaster, then he would be in the perfect place to stop them. He was going to do this job and he was going to do it right.

After quickly warning the scientists (and so-called magic-user) about the trouble brewing outside, Wally took his position back up in front of the entrance to the inner warehouse. He did it not a moment too soon, too because Artemis was striding towards him as he stood there. She pulled to a stop at the sight of him standing there and said breathlessly, "Let me through."

"No way, Jose. I've got a job to do here and I intend to do it." Wally said, even flashing a grin at her at the end. He found that enemies tended to be a little less formidable when they were angry (unless they were super strong because then they just got scary), so annoying his enemies was always his go to.

She growled at him and narrowed her eyes. Before she could move, though, Cheshire's came through his earpiece, " _Sportsmaster and I are in position to get out of here. The experiments are finished. If you want to leave with us, I recommend you get in here now._ "

Wally flashed another grin at the blond archer and said, "Gotta go! See you later, alligator!" He heard her running after him through the big doors, but he couldn't be bothered to care. He turned just in time to see her yell 'freeze' before he  _felt_  everything freeze around him. Turning his head the slightest bit, Wally saw Klarion saying the words to a spell before everything went dark.

The darkness retreated seconds later and Wally found himself gasping on the floor of the meeting room that the bigwigs in charge of the Light usually used. For now, the room was dim and empty of giant blue projections. Wally breathed a silent sigh of relief at that. A couple metas came into the room at the sound of crashing and helped Professor Ivo, the Brain, Mallah, and Klarion get the echinoderm out of the meeting room and off to wherever they go to relax after a mission. Sportsmaster offered a hand to Cheshire, but she batted it away and flipped up by herself. Shrugging, the man called out, "Get those ribs checked out, brat." He left the room immediately afterwards, leaving Wally and Cheshire alone.

Wally closed his eyes and just laid there on the floor for a moment. He didn't open his eyes when he asked, "What's up with you and Sportsmaster? There is some serious tension between you two."

Cheshire didn't answer. She just gripped Wally by the wrist and yanked him up, causing him to hiss at the twinge in his ribs. When he'd finally regained his balance, she suddenly ruffled her fingers through his hair and murmured, "You did well." He didn't get a chance to respond before she was pulling him out of the room and into the hall, "Let's get you to the infirmary. I don't think you've been there before." She acted like it hadn't happened, but it meant the world to Wally. He felt his lips curve up into a small smile.

DDDDDD

Dick sighed in consternation as the mentors filed into the room. This was such a mess. Batman scowled down at them all, "What happened?"

Red Arrow interrupted the chance of any of them answering, "Was there a hit on the STAR Labs in Oregon?"

Batman gave him a narrow-eyed look that Robin recognized as suspicion. It was Green Arrow who answered, "Yeah, there was. We caught the metahuman. It wasn't anyone that we recognized, but we're pretty sure he actually works for the Light based on what Martian Manhunter got out of his mind." Martian Manhunter nodded to show his agreement.

Before anyone could react to that, Batman started his questioning, "Why wouldn't there have been a hit? You said that your informant was reliable, correct?" Dick winced to himself. Now that he knew what was going on with Wally, he felt back for Red Arrow. He was also furious at Wally. He was furious at himself too for letting all of this affect him so much.

Red Arrow scowled, "Apparently not as reliable as I'd thought if he wasn't able to tell me about the problem we just dealt with. I found out that he knew about the thing going down in the Orleans Parish, but he didn't tell me. I don't want little bits and pieces of information. I want enough to take the Light down."

That softened Batman's glare the tiniest bit, "Criminal Informants are criminals. Their first priority is themselves, not getting you information. If your informant didn't tell you about this, then who did?" And there was interrogation mode back on again.

Robin swallowed his sigh and straightened his back, "That was me. I thought it was weird that they would hit STAR Labs like they did. I mean, the last time they wanted to steal something from STAR Labs, they split the world into an adult version and a kid version to do it. Why would they just out of the blue attack normally? So I figured that it had to be a diversion. I didn't want to tell you guys without any proof, so I started researching and I found out that Sportsmaster was seen down in the Orleans Parish and that there was going to be a train passing by relatively soon after that. There wasn't enough time for me to notify you guys, so I told Aqualad and Red Arrow and we took Artemis with us to go stop it."

"You didn't just run into Sportsmaster, though, did you?" Superman asked, expression furrowed slightly.

"We also encountered Cheshire and Momentum." Aqualad announced.

"There were more!" Artemis blurted out. The group stared at her, surprised by the sudden outburst. Her cheeks heated, but she soldiered on, "At the end, we ended up in front of a warehouse. Inside, there was Klarion and the Brain and Monsieur Mallah and Professor Ivo."

Roy raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Professor Ivo is in prison and has been the whole time. How do you supposed he ended up in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere?"

Artemis's cheeks heated more, but she kept going, "I know he was there! I saw him!"

"Again, he's been at Belle Reeve this entire time!" Roy countered.

Robin stepped forward a little bit, already seeing where this conversation would go, "Hey Red Arrow, maybe tone it down a little bit? There's an explanation for this. We just need to figure it out together. Impossible things have happened before."

"Together?" Red Arrow asked incredulously. The mentors were shifting in their position, ready to interfere if they needed to. Red Arrow continued, "How can you possibly want to work together with her?"

"Roy!" Black Canary hissed. The tension in the room was getting worse and worse.

Roy shook his head, "No! Can't you see? Artemis intentionally put a tracker on the train to send us on a wild goose chase looking for Cheshire! She'd put one on the assassin too and followed that one while she let us chase our tails running through that train. Thankfully, I'd expected something like that, so I had put a tracker on Artemis too. If it wasn't for that, I dread to think what kind of secrets she'd have gotten the chance to give away while we were chasing after thin air." The rest of the Team stared at Artemis in shock, but she just closed her eyes in acceptance and lowered her head in shame. Dick felt his heart beat painfully in his chest. Was she really the traitor?

Green Arrow took a step forward, placing himself between his former protégé and his current one, "There's probably a better explanation for this. Don't just accuse her of being the mole without real proof. You need to see someone giving information away to be able to accuse them of being the mole. Otherwise a team falls apart. We'll talk to her and find out what the problem was. I don't think she's the mole, so you don't have to worry." Dick winced. The worst thing GA could have done in this situation was defend Artemis. Roy was already testy enough about the fact that his adoptive father 'replaced' him as soon as he went solo. It wasn't like that, but Roy wouldn't see it that way. He always was the jealous kind.

Red Arrow just growled at the assembled heroes and pushed his way towards the zeta beam transporters, glaring at whomever dared to make eye contact. Robin sighed. Apparently, he wasn't going to get a chance to talk to Roy tonight. Well, this morning actually.

After a moment of awkward silence, Artemis stalked out too, Green Arrow running off after her. Aquaman went to Kaldur'ahm to check him over, noticing the slight bruising on his forehead and the stiff way he held himself. M'gann and J'onn nodded to each other before heading off their own separate ways. Conner stared heartbreakingly at Superman, but Clark ignored him, simply swishing his cape and leaving the Cave. Dinah went to go fill the whole that Clark widened every time he ignored his clone/son. Zatanna's shoulders sagged as she saw all the mentor interaction and she walked sadly back to her own room.

In the end, it was just Batman and Robin standing in the Cave. The older hero put a hand on Robin's shoulder and led him towards the zeta beam transporters, punching in the code that would get them to the Bat Cave. Once they got there, Batman took off his cowl, revealing Bruce underneath. Getting the hint, Robin took off his own mask, rubbing away the little traces of spirit gum that was left behind on the bridge of his nose.

"Dick," Bruce started seriously, "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Dick bit his lip, staring up at his mentor and his father figure, "I know, Bruce. I just… this would be better if I handled it myself. I  _need_  to handle it myself."

Bruce sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, eyes closing for a second, "You don't  _need_  to handle anything by yourself. I'm here so you don't have to. But, as long as I don't see it negatively affecting your schoolwork, your patrols, or your work with the Team, then I'll allow it. As soon as I think whatever this is that you're keeping from me is getting dangerous for you, I'm stepping in. Agreed?"

Without hesitation, Dick said, "Agreed."

"Alright," Bruce smiled, "Let's go get some hot chocolate and cookies from Alfred. This has been a rough night."

"Good thing tomorrow's the weekend." Dick chirped, skipping up the stairs towards the waiting promise of hot chocolate and cookies.

LLLLLL

Luthor smirked to himself as he watched Vandal Savage take in the extent of the labs displayed before him. Savage kept glancing between the labs and the data already taken from subjects through the years. Savage muttered to himself, "So  _this_  is the Everyman Project."

"Indeed it is. Magnificent, is it not? Unfortunately, this will not benefit me the way I had intended, but I still intend to make my money's worth with the research. Perhaps, though, with your help to further the research that I've described there, this might benefit you the way I had originally planned it to benefit me."

"It won't work on you?" Savage asked, eyes keen and, most importantly,  _interested_  beneath his bushy brows.

Luthor shrugged, adopting a slightly sad expression, "What can I say? I am incompatible with the treatment. If you agree to help, then I can have you tested for compatibility immediately. Ra's al Ghul's blood samples are going through the tests right now."

A small, cruel curve of a smile overtook Savage's angled lips as he huffed out a small laugh, "So that's how you got the leader of the assassins interested. I was curious as to what had pulled him so abruptly to your side. That is quite the masterful manipulation."

Luthor shrugged, secretly pleased, "I am nothing if not a successful business man."

"Very well, Luthor. I will help you. Although, I do not see why you don't just take the speedster boy by force. With the amount of villains here, he wouldn't have a chance at getting away." Savage questioned.

"I need him to be lulled into a false sense of security. For the test to work, he needs to be relaxed and not fighting back. I need this to be done with his consent. And after Wally's last experience with the Everyman Project, I doubt he would be very much consenting if we took him by force." Luthor answered breezily, staring out at his labs with barely disguised glee.

Savage huffed out that small laugh again, "Does the boy even know that he had been a part of the early stages of the Everyman Project?"

"I doubt it. The scientists were under orders to not tell him of the nature of his captivity lest he got out – which he did. And his father hardly knew enough about the program to tell him about it. Then again, a father that sells his only child into human experimentation would hardly care to explain the situation to his child even if he did know it." Luthor responded.

"I heard you kept the father on as an employee. Why would you keep a brute like that?" Savage asked, more amused by the thought than anything else.

Luthor laughed slightly, "The scientists aren't exactly known for their physical prowess. He might be a mindless brute, but Rudolph West at least has the strength to catch more metas for the project."

Savage huffed out a laugh in return before standing his mammoth body up and turning to Luthor, "I am glad that we were able to come to this agreement. Our work can only benefit from it." Luthor inclined his head in agreement and Savage nodded to him in return before leaving the lab behind.

Luthor smirked to himself, "What a productive day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for missing another update! I'm telling you, these allergies are kicking my butt. I'm not even entirely aware of what's going on right now because the allergies are so completely awful. Ugh. Anyways, double update today if that's any consolation...


	25. Phone Calls

WWWWWW

Wally scowled down at his phone, eyebrows drawn together. His hair was swept in sweaty tangles off to one side and his cheeks were red and streaked with sweat. He was wearing his exercise clothes and had just come back from a training session with Cheshire. She had to leave to go out on a mission afterwards, so he wouldn't be getting his tactics training, but that just meant that he could use the rest of the afternoon to do some more physical training. Cheshire was grudgingly impressed at his renewed training rigor, but Wally could tell that it frustrated her a little bit. As much as she tried to be a tough teacher, it was obvious to Wally that she cared, at least a little, about the other people in the program.

His phone buzzed six times in rapid succession, drawing his attention and another scowl.

_Freddie (12:34pm):_

_Hey, we need to talk._

_Can we meet up somewhere again?_

_When are you open?_

_John?_

_Wally?_

_Look, I don't know what's all going on, but you're freaking me out because you've been ignoring my texts for like three days now. Stop ignoring me._

Those weren't the only messages coming in. Patrick was, out of the blue, blowing up Wally's phone too.

_Patrick (12:36pm):_

_Hey kiddo! I figured that I'd trying texting since apparently you're too good for phone calls._

_You're really starting to worry me, kid. I heard what you got yourself into. I just want to talk to you about it. Not necessarily to get you to stop. I just want to make sure that you're alright._

_Jesus, man. It takes forever to text. This is why people call._

Most concerning, though, were the texts coming in from Roy. Wally didn't know what to make of them and he didn't know how to answer them either.

_Red Arrow (12:39pm):_

_Momentum. Answer your freaking phone._

_You are irritating me and, trust me, you don't want me irritated._

_Answer. The. Stupid. Phone._

_Look, I know I was mad at you back in the Orleans Parish, but I said we'd talk, right? So let's talk. I'm not good at talking things out, but I'm willing to try. We need to work this out._

_Come on, let's talk this out._

_Do you want me to apologize or something for not trusting you? Is that it? I'm sorry. Okay? I am sorry._

_Answer the stupid freaking phone!_

Cameron's snickers tore Wally out of his staring contest with the phone. Wally glanced up at him curiously, "What?"

"You look like you just got rejected by your girlfriend or something." Cameron laughed.

Wally pouted, "It's more like I'm doing the rejecting. There's three people who have this number and they're all texting me like crazy because I'm not answering!" He threw his hands up and went back to frowning at his phone.

A single white brow was raised incredulously, "There seems to be a really easy solution to this: answer your phone."

"I don't know what to say!" Wally exclaimed, suddenly shutting the phone off and slamming it into the table, mulishly starting in on the food he'd ordered. Cameron pursed his lips and started in on his own food, very pointedly not looking at Wally. Eventually cracking, Wally exploded, "What?"

Cameron burst out laughing, "You are such a girl! I don't even feel bad laughing at you. 'You don't know what to say'. Come on, Wally, really? Alright, you have three people texting you. What are they texting you about?"

"Two of them want to meet up with me to talk about my life choices and the other one wants to confront me about the matter of trust between us." Wally muttered, a bit put off that Cameron was not sympathizing with him at all.

That pure white eyebrow rose again, "I'm not even going touch that last one with a ten foot pole because  _yikes_ , but the other two are simple. You don't have to talk about anything serious. All you have to do is set up a meeting time. That's actually super easy. And you don't have to worry about going anywhere near here because super speed – which, someday, I'm totally going to convince you to run me somewhere because I have to. I  _have_  to."

Wally ignored that last bit, instead sighing dramatically, "I have to talk to them about serious stuff over the phone or over text because the hot shots in charge won't let me leave the building unless it's on a mission they approved or whatever."

"Seriously?" Cameron asked incredulously, "I've never heard of them doing that to anyone, ever."

"Yeah, well, they told me I was the exception to the rule. The freak among freaks so to say." Wally responded despondently. At this point, he was more mashing his food than eating it and that really wasn't what he wanted since they actually had pretty good food. It wasn't anywhere near as good as Mick's but… but that wasn't an option anymore.

Cameron frowned, "I'm pretty sure all of us feel that way. We all feel like the freak among freaks, exception to rules or not. As cool as my powers are, it'd be nice to be able to be thief without powers, you know? I almost feel like a pet sometimes. Not just at the Light, but all over. Even with my dad – he's not a metahuman. He's pretty sure that it was exposure to his tools that made me into a metahuman. And I feel like people like my dad or the Light just collect us metas because we can do cool things and be admired for our flashy techniques. We're not real villains, not really. We're just superpowered kids who have the potential to be villains but not the opportunities to grow on our own. You know?"

Wally nodded before saying, "It wasn't like that with the Rogues. They never treated me like I was different because I was a metahuman. It was like they didn't even realize it half the time."

"Sounds nice." Cameron tried for a smile, but it fell a little flat. Both teens were too lost in their thoughts to really care.

Wally wondered idly if the heroes had that problem. Did hero metahumans feel left out and inherently  _different_  among the others? Out of the founding members of the Justice League – Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter – Flash was the only metahuman. There were three aliens and two humans (although Green Lanterns had wicked powers, Wally counted him as a human since he was pretty sure the powers worked from the ring only). Wally wondered if Wonder Woman was considered a human? She really  _wasn't_ , but she wasn't a metahuman either. Did she feel isolated like the Flash probably did? Or were the heroes so inherently good that they didn't have those same feelings of isolation in their teams.

Then again, it wasn't really a good versus bad thing, though. The Rogues didn't make anyone feel isolated or alone and they were villains. Then again, a lot of the other villains made fun of them and called them reject-heroes because they saved people sometimes and weren't nearly as monstrous as some of the others. Was it because they were so close to being heroes that they were inclusive? Or was it something else? What made a team a 'good team'?

"Well, that got me down. How about this? We finish our lunch and I give you an hour to make your phone calls. You keep them short enough for the hour so you can't get into too much serious conversation. Then, we'll go play some video games in the game room." Cameron waggled his eyebrows invitingly.

Wally gaped at him, "There's a  _game room_?"

Cameron laughed loudly, clutching his stomach, "Dude, Cheshire's really been going hard on you if she hasn't shown you the game room yet! That woman's evil sometimes, I swear. So, how about it?"

Finally feeling a little better about things, Wally nodded and the two metas finished their meal in companionable silence. He wasn't going to call Roy. He needed to talk to Cheshire about that first (he would have tried Cameron first, but Wally wasn't sure how much he was cleared to know or whatever and he didn't want to get in trouble) and then he'd call Roy. But he'd call Freddie and Patrick. Each of them would get a half an hour max and that would be it. He refused to give them any more time than that.

DDDDDD

Dick sat stiffly on the counter of the kitchen in the Cave. The entire team was gathered there, but any conversation was stilted or non-existent. Everyone was still tense from the Orleans Parish mission. Kaldur and Dick were upset about Artemis leading them on a wild goose chase. Artemis was upset about them not believing her. Connor, Megan, and Zatanna were upset about not being included. The girls were siding with Artemis because they knew her better. Connor didn't know what to think, so that was making him moody which strained things between him and M'gann. By this point, Dick was just munching on cookies and texting Momentum from beneath his cape.

The speedster wasn't answering Dick, which annoyed him. At least, it annoyed him until he realized that Wally (Dick still needed to ask Barry why he'd called out the name Wally as the speedster was running away; the acrobat still didn't feel all that comfortable calling the ginger that because he wasn't sure what it meant) wasn't answering Roy either. That made him go from annoyed to concerned in record time. Had the Light found out that John was contacting them? But, they should know that he'd be in contact with Roy. And they shouldn't know who Robin was. They shouldn't be able to connect Freddie and Robin and Dick Grayson even if they did find out that Momentum made a friend called Freddie.

But what if they had? What if they were torturing John for information right now and Dick was doing nothing but eating cookies with a silent and mistrusting team? What if, what if, what if?

That was why, when Dick's phone went off and the picture of the demon dog that he'd put as John's icon popped up on the phone, Dick was off the counter in an instant and heading towards his sound-proofed room. Kaldur's voice stopped him, "Robin. We are participating in a team bonding exercise to increase trust within the team and reduce tension. No one is allowed to leave the room."

Robin groaned inwardly and purposefully let some of his panic bleed into his voice, "I know that, but this is an important call. There's someone I know who's in a really bad spot right now and I'm trying to help him, but he's got some serious trust issues. If he knew that other people were listening to the conversation, he'd freak."

Kaldur stared at him unblinkingly and Robin wanted to bash his own face into the wall. Kaldur stated calmly, "We will conduct a conversation of our own so as to not listen in on your conversation with your friend, but you cannot leave the room."

Robin hesitated for a second, but the ringing coming from the phone convinced him. He'd never get through this argument in enough time to answer the phone and there was no chance that John would answer back if he missed the call. Groaning out loud this time, Dick settled back onto the counter and pushed the button on his phone to start the call. He waved for the others to start a conversation before saying quietly, "Hey John, I'm glad you called."

" _Yeah, sorry for stonewalling you for like three days. I want to say I've been busy, but honestly I've just been worrying. There's a lot of stuff going on._ " John responded. He sounded tired and worn out. Dick wanted to hug him until he never sounded sad again.

Dick tried to keep his voice upbeat when he went on, "It's all good. Totally asterous. I was more worried that something happened to you. But obviously it's fine now. We should find a time to meet up. Remember, you promised to go talk to your family? And besides, there are other things we should talk about."

John's voice was hesitant when he responded, " _Sorry, Freddie, but I don't think I'll be keeping that promise._ "

"What do you mean?" There was an edge of panic in Dick's voice. Was John being threatened? Or was it worse? Had the speedster permanently switched sides and was cutting off all contact?

He still sounded hesitant when he explained, " _They've got me on lockdown here. I'm not allowed to leave unless it's for something they want me to do for them. I mean, it's pretty chill here, so it's not that bad. They apparently have a game room that I've been missing out on this entire time. And I've been getting some pretty sweet training too, so that's cool. Next time you see me I'm going to be ripped. It's just that, I don't know how long that's going to be. It could be a while before you saw me again._ "

"You can't sneak out?" Dick asked desperately. Momentum was getting sucked deeper and deeper into the Light and the next thing he knew there wasn't going to be any saving of this person who Dick was starting to really care about.

John snorted, but the sound was slightly bitter, " _Oh yeah, I can totally sneak out of a stronghold filled with ninjas. That'll totally work out just fine._ " Dick heard Connor's voice stutter as the clone paused to give him a strange look, but he ignored it.

Dick rolled his eyes, inwardly starting to feel desperate. He needed to get John out of there. Dick said, "C'mon, you're awesome. You could totally sneak out. I mean, you're being trained, aren't you? Next thing you know, you'll be a ninja and you can sneak out for us to meet up."

John's voice was sad when he responded, " _Yeah, sure Freddie. I'll make sure to text you the moment my ninja skills are good enough. Hey, I'm sorry about all of this. I'm an awful friend. You're just trying to help and I keep messing everything up._ "

"No!" Dick exclaimed, frowning to himself, "You're not an awful friend. You're one of my best friends, John. You're not really doing anything wrong. You just… you need to get out of there and go back to your family."

" _I can't._ " John said apologetically, " _I can't just leave. You know why I'm staying here. Even if my family wants me back – which I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around – I have to stay here for other people's sake. Besides, I'm getting some good connections here and I'm getting some awesome training. It's not like this is the worst place to be._ "

Dick felt his eyebrows raise as he hunkered further into himself, hissing, "Not the worst place to be? John, where you are is  _dangerous_. You could be  _killed_! How do you not get that?"

John's voice was stubborn as he threw back, " _They're not going to kill me! Didn't we talk about this last time? They need me! They_ need _me, Freddie! I'm not some easily replaced pawn. They went to some serious trouble to make sure that I came to them of my own free will. Because I did. I ran to them and I'm going to stay here. This is what I want, okay? For the time being, this is what I want._ "

"You can't be serious!" Dick cried out, hands flexing in an imaginary grip around Momentum's neck. This was getting bad.

John's jaw was obviously clenched when he hissed back, " _And why can't I be serious? Isn't it time to make my own decisions? My whole life, people have been forcing me into corners and making me do things. It's time that I made some decisions completely on my own._ "

"Not if they're the wrong ones!" Dick growled. Why wasn't the speedster seeing sense? Couldn't he see how dangerous his situation was? Couldn't he see how much evil he was allowing to happen – he was  _helping_  to happen – by staying with the Light? Did other people's lives not matter to him at all? Unbidden, Batman's words to Roy about a criminal informant being just a criminal flashed through his mind. Sometimes, when they were playing online games or texting, it was hard to remember that John was the supervillain Momentum who used his powers to steal from people. It was hard to remember that John consciously chose to steal and break the law. But he did. John was a supervillain and he was Robin's enemy out on the field. There was a good chance that all of the chaos caused by the Light appealed to John, that it was something he was genuinely interested in seeing come about. Dick sighed, "Look, John, I'm sorry. This is all freaking me out. I just want you to be safe because you are in danger right now, even if you aren't replaceable. Obviously, though, we aren't ready to have this conversation. I'll wait until we're face to face to try this again. Just, work on your ninja skills and make sure to keep texting me, okay?"

There was a pause before John said, " _Yeah, okay. I'll see you someday. Bye._ "

"Bye." Dick whispered before the dial tone sounded in his ear and he was able to put his phone away with a sigh.

He looked up to find that the rest of the Team was staring at him. He gave them the best narrow eyed look he could manage with the mask on, but it still seemed to affect them a little bit because M'gann and Zatanna started shifting slightly in their seats. Good. They should feel guilty.

Connor asked bluntly, "Why did he call you Freddie?"

Artemis perked up a little bit as if she'd finally discovered his secret ID. Robin felt vindictive pleasure from watching her expression deflate when he said, "I didn't trust him enough with my actual name, so I told him it was Freddie. He told me a fake name back, though, so it's all good."

"So his name isn't John?" M'gann asked curiously. Robin shook his head. She frowned a little bit, "Oh, okay. Is where he is really so dangerous? Do you think I could send him cookies to bolster him through his hard times?"

Despite himself, Robin smiled, "I don't even know the address of where's he's staying and I doubt they'd accept cookies from a stranger even if we did manage to get them there."

"That is too bad. I would have liked to help your friend. You said that he was one of your best friends, right? That means that he's important to us to!" M'gann declared seriously. Robin's eyes widened beneath the mask.

Zatanna nodded along, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips, "Just let us know if you need any help helping him with his problems. We're always willing to do that much for you."

"We don't need to know who you are or who he really is to know that he's important to you. You guys would do anything to help me if I asked, so I might as well repay the favor." Artemis shrugged, not even trying to play cool at the moment.

Conner stared at him unblinkingly, "You and Kaldur promised me the moon and you delivered on that promise. I'll do anything to repay that."

Kaldur smiled at the assembled team, expression soft, "I believe it has been decided. If ever you need assistance in this matter, please just tell us and we will be there to aid you."

"Thanks guys. That means a lot, really. Ha, things like this is why even Bats likes working on a team." Robin smiled.

Artemis's snort broke the tender moment, "Batman likes working with the Justice League? No way! He gets so obviously irritated with GA and the Flash."

Robin cackled, "If you think that gets him irritated, you should have seen him the one time that he, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and the Flash were all teamed up on one mission. I was pretty sure that he was going to kill those three, especially since they kept throwing inside jokes around. He still respects them, though, and I guess that's all that matters. He definitely enjoys being on a team."

Zatanna smirked, "I'm still reeling over the fact that you two think he has emotions."

Robin raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised you were brave enough to say that."

"What do you mean? Are you going to protect your mentor's virtue?" Zatanna giggled.

Robin smirked, "Nah, I just mean that I wouldn't have thought that you wouldn't have dared to say that within hearing distance of Batman's cameras." He outright cackled at the way Zatanna's face dramatically paled and her head whipped around frantically. The idea that these people were willing to do this for him filled him with warmth. He just wondered if they'd still want to do it if they knew that Wally was a villain.

PPPPPP

Patrick shifted uncomfortably on the rooftop that he'd agreed to meet the Flash in. It wasn't all that close to where he lived, but it wasn't close to Central either and that was key. Patrick was not giving the man a home town advantage if this ended up being a trap or something. Had it been a good idea to come here? Sure, he got one step closer to being a hero and sure, he got one step closer to saving his friend, but he had a girlfriend to think about. He had someone who was relying on him and living with him and he didn't want her to get hurt in any sort of crossfire. Then again, it was Wally who got Patrick with his girl in the first place, so he kind of owed it to the kid. Still…

Gah! It didn't matter how much he thought about this. He wasn't going to get anywhere with that so he just needed to live in the moment. He made his decision and he came to the place and he wasn't going to leave no matter how much he itched to. Patrick was going to save Wally and that was that.

The sound of rushing wind behind him (ten minutes late rushing wind, thank you very much!) made him reconsider his life choices all over again, but Patrick stood his ground. He was a thief and there was such a thing as honor among thieves and he was not going to go back on that. The wind died down and the formerly blurry edged figure came into sharp relief. The Flash stood before him in all his scarlet speedster glory. Patrick almost melted a little bit (and that was a surprisingly real problem for him) at the sight. Despite being a villain, Flash was his  _hero_. There were  _so_ many times where Patrick had considered going to Central just for the chance to be stopped by that awesome of a hero. The ring he'd been with was smarter than him in that aspect though because they did not want to get arrested. Even if they were arrested by pure awesomeness.

The Flash smiled, nice and friendly, "So, you're Plastic Man now, right?"

"Plastic Man's the name, hero-ing's the game!" Patrick said, grinning goofily beneath his giant white glasses. He felt a little goofy afterwards, too, but then the Flash started laughing, so it was all good.

The Flash said, "Thanks for meeting with me. It's hard to help someone become a hero over the phone. I'm just going to go ahead and let you know now that the first weeks – months, even – are the hardest. The good guys and the bad guys call you a freak and no one even knows if you're a myth or the real deal for a good long while which means that no one is at all appreciative. One good thing, though, is that you're battling against people who don't know you so no one knows how to counteract what you've got in the beginning. That's the only saving grace of the early stages of becoming a hero. You ready for that?"

"Yeah, I am! I don't care if people call me a freak or don't appreciate me helping them or whatever. I've sinned as a thief and I intend to atone for it the only way I can." Patrick said seriously.

The Flash grinned, "Good. That's the kind of enthusiasm that'll get you through this." He paused for a minute before announcing cheerfully, "I feel kind of like I just got a partner. I bet we'll be the best crime-fighting duo ever! The Dynamic Duo can eat their hearts out!"

Patrick laughed. The Flash was everything he was portrayed as on TV and more. He was so charismatic and full of life and so darn  _happy_  that he just gave Patrick hope. Flash waggled his eyebrows at him and said, "Alright, the first step is to make sure that you can actually fight because that's a pretty necessary skill when you crime  _fight_."

"I can see how that would be important." Patrick grinned. Then, though, his phone started ringing. The grin turned into a groan and he apologized to the Flash while pulling the phone out of his suit pocket, "Sorry, man. I completely forgot to turn that… hey, wait. It's Wally!"

Suddenly, the Flash was in Patrick's personal space. Patrick hadn't even seen him move and then he was there, demanding, "What? Really? You have to answer it! And put it on speaker phone!"

"Yeah, yeah, alright man. Give me a second." Patrick fumbled with the phone before finally answering the call and pressing speaker. He answered as nonchalantly as he could, "What's up, kid?"

" _You tell me. You're the one that's been texting me like crazy. Have I been making you feel neglected?_ " Wally sounded strung out and keyed up, but his voice was still teasing.

Patrick grinned, "Definitely. I feel so neglected. You've abandoned me to the depressing vortex of being a hero."

Wally laughed, " _Apparently not that good of a hero. I haven't heard anything about any new heroes popping up anywhere._ "

"I'll have you know that I'm in my first hero lesson right now, thank you very much. I got that far at least." Patrick threw back, mock offended. He was honestly just relieved that Wally sounded safe and unharmed.

Wally's laughter disappeared and his voice became more cautious, " _Oh really? And who's the teacher?_ "

"Oh I don't know, maybe the one you gave me the number for." Patrick responded, just as cautious.

Wally's voice sounded slightly strangled when he said, " _Oh. So… the Flash is with you right now?_ "

"Look, Wally, I can take the phone off speaker phone and walk away if that's what you want. I really do just want to talk to you and help you out. I heard that you fell into a bad group and I want to make sure that you've got fallout plans. Please tell me you've got fallout plans." Patrick responded. He'd known already that Wally didn't much like the Flash, but he'd been hoping that it wouldn't be that much of a problem. It was hard being a hero when you've got a friend that's a villain.

There was a sigh and then Wally was saying, " _Nah, it's okay Eel. Just go ahead and stay like you are. And I'm working on fallout plans! It offends me that you'd think I wouldn't have any._ "

"You don't have any!" Patrick cried out, horrified, "You're with a new ring and you don't have any fallout plans! No, don't try to argue that half baked plans are the same as actually having full plans. It's not. Ugh, kids trying to run around and be criminals. Let the real criminals – er, former criminals – show you how it's done."

Wally sounded like he was actually pouting when he responded, " _I'm not_ trying _to be a criminal. I_ am _a criminal. I just recently pulled off a successful mission the other day even when the team of mini leaguers showed up. So ha! Besides, this isn't exactly the easiest group to create fallout plans for. I can't see them being taken down easily and they need me, so I can't see them dumping me and running._ "

"Do you have any allies, yet?" Patrick asked. The Flash was staring at his phone as if it were the holy grail or something. Patrick wondered idly what his connection to Wally really was. It didn't seem like a hero and their villain, but it didn't seem like a Justice League member and someone they were trying to protect either. It was weird.

Wally sighed, " _Yes,_ mother _, I have some allies. I guess. Kind of. They're more like friends? But I'm not sure if they'd side with me or with the Light. There's one that would almost definitely side with the Light, but the other one could honestly go either way. They're both pretty cool though. I'd say you should meet them someday, but that's not really the smartest of options now that you're a hero. Which, congrats by the way. I don't think I ever really said that._   _What do you even do as a hero? I'm not sure how lock-picking translates to crime-fighting_."

Patrick rolled his eyes, "I told you that I could do some stuff that I couldn't do before when we originally had this conversation. I'm Plastic Man now!"

Wally snorted, " _Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to laugh. I just…_ how _did you come up with that name?_ "

"Because of my powers, brat. I'm basically like a rubber band, just better." Patrick responded.

He could practically hear Wally's eyebrows raise as he said, " _You're like a rubber band, but better?_ "

"Don't mock me when I'm trying to help you!" Patrick cried out.

The laugh he got from the kid was worth it, " _Look, man, thanks for looking out for me. I'll shore up my fallout plans and I'll text them to you when I finally get them all done. I'll make sure I have them finished within a couple days too, so don't worry. I wish you luck with the whole being a hero thing. You're a better person than I am to be able to do that._ "

Flash spoke up for the first time, "You can do that too, you know. I'd make sure you got full amnesty for everything you've done. You could even join the mini league if you wanted to. I'd train you and we'd figure out a living situation. You could be a hero if you wanted to be one. It's better than being a hero."

Wally's voice was full of soft, sad regret, " _Being a hero probably isn't as financially rewarding or as liberatingly fun. It's just not my style._ "

There was a sort of tender expression on the Flash's face as he responded just as softly, "Styles change. And I'll be here if yours ever does. I'll be here even if it doesn't."

" _Someday,_ " Wally started, " _I'll believe that._ "

"I know." The Flash said before perking up a little bit, "But Wally, at least come meet up with Plastic Man and I. Come talk to us at the very least so we can make sure you're okay. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to try to convert you and I'm not going to deny that I'll try to get you to leave the place you're staying, but please at least come talk to us."

" _I can't. They don't let me leave unless it's on a mission for them. And I might be fast, but I can't go and meet with you and be back before my partners realize I'm missing on a mission. Maybe someday I'll be able to leave whenever, but for now this is how it is._ " Wally said, voice hard and practiced like he'd been preparing to shut their argument down like this since the conversation started.

Patrick frowned, "And you're okay with being controlled like that?"

There was a pause before Wally answered honestly, " _Yeah, I actually am. It's being part of an organization. It's gaining their trust through my own merits and doing things on my own. If I have to lose some control to get there, then that's fine. I'm willing to make that sacrifice._ "

"If you're okay with it, then I'm okay with it." Patrick answered, willing to give his friend the benefit of the doubt.

From off to the side, Flash muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Apparently it doesn't matter if  _I'm_  okay with it."

Patrick grinned before finishing the conversation with, "Alright, I'll be expecting those plans within the next couple of days. I will pester you via text if I don't see them, got it?"

" _Got it. Talk to you later, Plastic Man. You too, Flash._ " Wally responded before he hung up.

Patrick grinned at the Flash, "Look at that, he even said goodbye to you too. Isn't he sweet?"

Flash rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Come on, I'll bring you out to a field somewhere and we can start your actual fighting training. Do you have any background in fighting people?"

As Patrick started to discuss any former training he had (a moderate amount from a long time ago), he smiled to himself. It looked like Wally wouldn't be able to come out and meet him, so there was a good chance that he'd have to go undercover with whatever group it was that was so dangerous. That didn't matter at the moment though. At the moment, all that mattered was that he was going to be trained to fight and his friend was safe. Just wait until Ramona heard about all of this.


	26. A Villain

WWWWWW

Somehow, Cheshire knew that Wally needed to talk. The moment she came back from her mission, she sauntered into the game room, seemingly glared at the mess that only two teenaged boys surrounded by games could create, and announced, "Come on, Momentum. We're training. Now." And then she turned and was gone, sauntering off towards the training room.

Wally groaned and threw his head back, "She wants to kill me. There's only so much training I can take in a day."

Cameron gave him an incredulous look, "You can't tell me that you weren't going to go do your own physical training if I hadn't made you come here."

Wally glowered at him, "There's a difference between my training and hers: my training doesn't punch me. The only pain when I do my own training is the burn of tired muscles. The pain when I do training with her is getting kicked, punched, slapped, slammed, flipped, kneed, elbowed, etc. It's  _torture_."

Cameron laughed, "You secretly love it. Who wouldn't love training with that hot babe? Getting to look at that the whole time would be definitely worth it."

A cold voice called out from the door, "Oh really? Would you like to try it yourself, Icicle Jr.?"

Cameron froze and granted Wally a desperate glance before whispering, "Help me!" Wally raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Cameron's expression became even more desperate as he whispered, "Come on! Bros before hos, man!"

" _What_  did you call me?" Cheshire asked, suddenly dangerously close.

Cameron jumped about a foot in the air and started backpedaling towards the door before he'd even landed, "I called you an amazing trainer, ma'am! And, you know, as an amazing trainer, I really shouldn't interrupt you. Honestly, Wally needs more help than I do with the whole training thing and it would really just be rude of me to mess with that. Besides, I, uh, I hear someone calling my name! Yeah! Hear that? Someone's calling for Icicle Jr.! So, I can't join the training session. Sorry! Uh, yeah, um… bye!" Wally didn't think that even  _he_  could have gotten out of the room as fast as Cameron did.

Cheshire fixed Wally with what he assumed was an unimpressed glare (it was actually kind of scary how well Cheshire could get her facial expressions across through the hard, unmoving mask) and said, "You were moving too slow. Didn't I say we were training now?"

"Yeah. I'm coming, I'm coming! What are we even training? This afternoon was supposed to be tactics, right? So why are we doing physical training?" Wally asked, rapid fire shooting off questions.

Quickly navigating through the maze of hallways, Cheshire answered, "Your focus has been off since we went on that mission. There's something that stopping you from putting your everything into training and that needs to stop. So we'll talk it out during training."

"Wow," Wally stated, raising his eyebrows, "I get a counselor now too. This is a pretty sweet gig I've got going on here."

"This isn't a game." Cheshire hissed.

Wally took a small step back. Cheshire seemed keyed up today, especially irritable and bereft of her usual sarcastic humor. Wally's eyebrows furrowed, "I know this isn't a game. This is my life and this organization isn't some little kid's club. I get that. You know I use humor as a way to avoid that kind of stuff. You've never snapped at me for it before."

"That's because that was before. You've done a mission for the Light now. You've shown that you can follow orders and think on your feet and adapt to your surroundings. In other words, you've become more useful. And the more useful you are, the more you're going to be used. They're going to start sending you on more missions and the missions are going to be more dangerous and more involved. In other words, you're falling deeper and deeper into the Light. You need to think about it. Is this what you want? Is being a useful agent of the Light worth all the drawbacks it comes with? You started this out by saying that you were loyal to Red Arrow, not to the Light. Red Arrow is the Light and you've struggled with the before. Are you still willing to do this?" Cheshire growled, pinning him up against the training room wall. She had an arm pressed against his throat – enough to hurt, but not enough to make it so he can't talk. Her foot was turned to the side and pressed down over both of his feet, one leg pressed against his so he couldn't use them. His hands were trapped slightly above his head in her tight grip.

She'd hit every nail on the head. She'd brought up every single one of his insecurities and concerns and made them all the more pressing. Frowning, Wally bent his wrist and dug his nails into Cheshire's arm, bucking up with his hips at the same time. He managed to get her to loosen his grip enough for him to twist around and loop his own leg around hers. They both tumbled to the ground, but he managed to react fast enough to land on top of hers. The same position they'd been in before was now reversed and she was pressed against the floor instead of the wall. Wally frowned again, "Why can't Red Arrow know that he's a clone? If he's under your command the whole time anyways, then why can't you tell him? He won't act any different or say anything if you tell him not to, right?"

"That's not how it works. He's a programmed clone, but he is still a living human being. And living human beings are particularly unpredictable. The programming can only do so much. The only other step would be to brainwash him and, not only does that take too long and is too noticeable, but I have a feeling that you don't want that either." Cheshire said, quickly pulling up a leg and kneeing Wally in the gut, forcing him to double over. As he bent in half, he unintentionally brought Cheshire's trapped hands closer to his face. She started to claw at his eyes and he jerked backwards to avoid it, using his other hand to trap hers. That freed her neck and she lifted her shoulders upward before forcefully rolling them (along with the rest of her body) back and flipping Wally off of her. He tumbled to the ground and ended with her behind him, her arm wrapped around his throat and his arms pressed to his sides by her other arm.

Wally panted a little bit, "I just can't help but feel like I'm betraying him. I mean, the Red Arrow I've known has always been a clone, but still! At first, I thought it was all good because of that, but now… He doesn't know he's a clone. So is Red Arrow really the Light when he tries so hard to fight against it and stop evil from happening? Is he really a villain like the rest of us when he doesn't know he's doing bad stuff? When he wouldn't do that bad stuff if he was conscious of it?" He elbowed her in the gut, but she only swayed slightly with the movement, tightening her grip on his throat in warning. He got the message that he wasn't to try anything while she talked.

Cheshire stared down at him with that eerie mask and said, "Red Arrow is not a villain. He is a hero and will always be a hero. It doesn't matter if he's a villain or a hero though. It matters what you are.  _You_  are a villain and will always be a villain. It's what you're made for. It's what you've been destined to become. All those hardships you've faced? Every time the world looked down on you and mocked you and spat on you? That was just the tragic origin story for a villain. The Light is an organization of villains. You  _belong_  here. Don't you feel good here? Don't you feel like you're doing something that fits your wants?"

Wally sagged a little in her grip and, in response, the grip loosened a little bit to the point that it almost felt like a hug instead of a stranglehold. He answered, "What  _are_  my wants? I've never really taken the time to figure that out. It was never as important as surviving from day to day. I never thought I'd get to the point that I could have a future that went farther than figuring out which dumpsters weren't already claimed by a group of street rats. When the Rogues first asked me to join, I told them that I wasn't like them. I told them that I didn't enjoy stealing for fun – I only did it to survive. Then I started stealing with them and it was so much fun. I enjoyed the adrenaline rushes and the feeling that I could do whatever I wanted and no one could stop me. I loved the rush of wind through my hair as I really  _ran_  without worrying about people finding me and beating me up for being a metahuman. I felt accomplished when I made some chemical grade weapon for another supervillain. I  _like_  being a villain, but I'm not sure how villainous I like being. The Rogues are pretty tame for villains – no killing except for revenge, no hurting women or children unless they're heroes, no drugs, no human trafficking. The Light isn't anywhere near as tame. They do everything the Rogues swore they'd never stoop to."

Cheshire rested her chin on Wally's head, grip loosening even further, "You know I'm an assassin. I kill people. I would even go so far as to say I enjoy it. It's like you with stealing – I feel accomplished and powerful and, most importantly, I feel free. I'm free of the rules that constrict others. Killing isn't for everyone, though. I can't imagine it's for you. You don't seem like the kind that would particularly enjoy it. But that's what's good about being a part of a large organization – you don't have to do everything. The Light has people for every little thing. They understand that you haven't done any of those other things and that you don't know if you'd be willing to. So they'll make sure that you only do the missions that you're comfortable with."

"I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with lying to Red Arrow – my friend – anymore. I hate lying to him and making him doubt me. I want to be his friend and I want to hang out without worrying about the masks." Wally confided.

Cheshire didn't move, simply answering, "I don't think you're as uncomfortable with it as you think. You don't particularly like the Justice League, do you? They trapped the Rogues and captured you and put an inhibitor collar on you. They never saved you when you needed saving. I think you enjoy the fact that you're leading the Justice League astray. Because, really, it  _is_  you. It's you who is going to make sure that the Justice League doesn't see a single thing we've done coming. Isn't that incredible? Doesn't that make you feel so powerful? You're not lying to Red Arrow; you're guiding him down the path we need him to take. Think about it this way – if he outlives his usefulness, if he gets to a point where we think the Justice League might discover that he's the mole, then the Light will kill him. You are the only one capable of keeping Red Arrow alive right now."

Wally's head was spinning. She was right. He was keeping Red Arrow safe  _and_  helping the Light achieve their goals all at the same time. He was a villain and he liked being a villain and he didn't think he'd ever stop liking being a villain. At the same time, though, "The Light tricked me into the believing the Rogues didn't want me."

Cheshire stilled entirely behind him before relaxing again, "I'm impressed you figured that out. They need you more than they need the Rogues. You are an infinitely powerful source of untapped ability that the Light needs. The Rogues were slowing your growth down."

Wally's voice was hard when he asked, "So the Rogues are here? They really didn't want me gone?"

There was a pause before Cheshire murmured softly, regretfully, "I never said that."

"You implied it." Wally accused. He was so confused. Freddie was right; the Light was just tricking him. But he liked it here. And they were villains. It was understandable that they wouldn't trust him and he for sure wouldn't have been as willing to do as they say without the extra push they'd given him. But he liked the Rogues too. They were his family when he'd been afraid of the idea. They showed him that maybe he wasn't as useless – as cursed – as he'd believed he was. That was what had made their betrayal all the more painful but now there was a good chance that they hadn't betrayed him. Surely there was a way for him to have both the Rogues  _and_  the Light. Wally demanded steadily, "I have to see them."

"You can't. You  _won't_." Cheshire responded, cold iron edging her words.

"The Light wants me to trust them, don't they? They want me to become a part of them, right? Then they have to let me see them." Wally responded, heated steel lining his words.

Cheshire shook her head, "They can't. The Light and the Rogues have a deal currently: if the Rogues keep the mini heroes away from the Light's plans, then the Rogues get to see you. If we allow you to see them too soon then it'll ruin any chance of us using the Rogues."

Wally's brows furrowed together, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because you've earned the trust." Cheshire answered simply. Wally's eyes widened. Cheshire continued, "You're right. The Light wants you to trust them and become a greater part of them. They understand that some trust needs to be reciprocated. We just needed to know that you weren't going to flip on us."

Wally felt something warm settle in his chest. It wasn't anything as silly as being happy that he was trusted, or feeling like he was part of something bigger; that warm something was a feeling of accomplishment. He'd gained the Light's trust all on his own. He, Wally West, had gained at least a little bit of trust within an international supervillain organization. He wasn't useless or stupid or a piece of trash. He was capable of achieving his dreams. He would protect Roy by keeping him useful. He would trust the Rogues to complete their side of the bargain so he could see them again. Someday, he would gain enough of the Light's trust that he could see Freddie again. Finally, everything was starting to work out.

LLLLLL

Finally, everything was starting to work out. Lex watched as Cheshire and Momentum finished their conversation and resumed their sparring. Cheshire was a truly talented teacher to have brought Momentum as far in his studies as she had in as little time as they'd had together. He was nowhere near being an actual threat to most people, but, with his speed, he was a formidable opponent.

Cheshire had also acted out her part perfectly. She was every bit the strict teacher that Wally could rely on. The way she ruthlessly cut down his arguments and showed him that he was a villain and a villain only was exemplary. Her subtle manipulation made it so Wally started to see the Light as something less than evil and something that more aligned with his interests.

Honestly, Luthor might have to borrow Cheshire more often. She was a remarkable woman and he would certainly benefit from some of her skills. He would have to work on convincing Ra's al Ghul of it the next time they spoke.

For the time being, though, he had something else to focus on. The scientists were beyond ecstatic that they had Wally in their grips again. He'd been one of their most useful test subjects and he was the only one they'd researched far enough into to do the final test they'd been planning. They just needed Wally's trust. And as far as Luthor saw, that trust was well within their reach.

Yes, everything was indeed working out perfectly.


	27. Solving Problems

DDDDDD

Dick was surprised to see that the Rogues had beaten him to the meeting spot they'd mutually agreed on. Luckily, he'd activated most of his reconnaissance the night before. Otherwise, it would have been rather obvious that he had been keeping and recording the conversations which Robin had a feeling that the Rogues wouldn't particularly approve of. Then again, if they could be convinced that it would help Wally, then they might agree to it. But that was all irrelevant because he had already been doing it for the past couple of weeks. Where even was his mind today?

He knew the answer to that. It was the reason that the Rogues were so distracted and restless enough to come to a meeting early when they were known for being exactly on time – never early, never late. It was the reason that Flash was working himself into the ground and it was the reason that Light operations had been increasing in success rates. It was the reason that Red Arrow had been more aggressive and the reason that the Justice League were attempting to develop a way to track the movement of speed force. Momentum was on everyone's mind. It was amazing how a single speedster could complicate a problem so much.

Robin dropped down in front of the Rogues, startling a few of them (Mirror Master jumped and Weather Wizard cursed while Digger buckled over laughing at them). Captain Cold was remarkably calm and unaffected as he stared at the young hero with frozen over eyes. Cold raised an eyebrow at the hero, "What was this meeting called for? We don't have any missions that we know about for you and your little team to deal with." Robin and at least one of the other Rogues have been meeting intermittently throughout the past couple of weeks for the Rogues to give Robin a mission to pass on to the Team.

The Team was currently willing to trust Robin's source because, so far, his source hasn't been wrong, but Robin could tell that the patience they had with him was wearing thin. They wanted to know who his source was and they wanted to know why the source was telling them this information. It was hard to trust someone when you don't know  _why_  they're willing to give the information. But Robin wasn't willing to jeopardize his agreement with the Rogues. He didn't doubt that the Rogues would be able to tell that he'd told the Team. He also didn't want to risk the mole finding out about the Rogues.

That was what was weighing down on Robin the most. No one knew who the mole was. No one acted like a mole. There was no specific person who stood out as a good candidate to be the mole. And yet,  _still_  there were information leaks. And that was what Robin came to talk to the Rogues about. Robin stared at them through the film of his mask, "I need you to find out who the mole is."

"No." Captain Cold responded, already shutting down the conversation.

Robin frowned, "Without knowing who the mole is, there's no way that the Team can possibly-,"

"You're going to have to figure out a way, kid. I'm not willing to risk the Rogues because you heroes can't do your job.  _You_  figure out the mole. You've got contact with Momentum, don't you? Ask him and see if he'll tell you. But don't get him into trouble either. If he gets hurt doing something for you… I don't think I need to finish that threat." Cold responded emotionlessly.

Robin scowled, "Momentum doesn't know that I'm Robin. I can't ask him about hero-villain stuff."

Heatwave grunted, "You can't expect me to believe that he doesn't at least suspect that you're related to the hero-ing world."

"That doesn't mean that I want him to know that I am a superhero! He's super intelligent! It wouldn't take him that long to figure out who I was." Robin growled. This was not what he'd come here to discuss.

Pied Piper rolled his eyes, "He's not going to be able to figure out who you are. He's ridiculously ignorant and obtuse when it comes to things he likes."

"I doubt he likes me that much." Robin stated doubtfully.

"Seriously?" Mirror Master asked incredulously, "You seriously don't think he likes you that much? We only heard about your relationship – sorry,  _friendship_  – a couple of weeks ago and we can tell how much he likes you. Maybe he shouldn't be so interested in someone who's so unobservant."

Robin glared at the group surrounding him. They were all in various stages of smirking at him or laughing at him. Hands clenched at his side, Robin growled, "Why can't you take this seriously? We're doing our best to find the mole and to find Momentum and to stop the Light and to deal with all the problems popping up  _everywhere_  and to fight off all the villains that seem to think that now is a good time to attack because we're  _busy_. Not to mention, all of us have  _lives_! We're not heroes full time! People don't pay us to be heroes and we don't get food and shelter from being heroes! Look," Robin started again, wrestling for control of his emotions, "You started this partnership because we had common interests. Part of those common interests was taking down the Light. You can't honestly believe that you'll be able to make a statement like that and not get some sort of backlash from the Light. Either way, you're going to get hurt from all of this. It doesn't matter if the Light catches you or not. It's either the Light or the Justice League. When the Justice League wins, your sentence will be very dependent on what you did to help. If you want to protect Momentum, then you need to help me find the mole."

Captain Boomerang shrugged a little from where he was standing off to the side, "Maybe the kiddo's right, mates. Maybe it's best if we pull a lil more weight ourselves. Every moment the Light's up 'n running is another moment they're usin' ta pull Momentum farther into their reach."

"We don't sacrifice the safety of the team for the safety of one." Weather Wizard shot back. Robin noticed that he turned a little bit so Pied Piper wouldn't be able to see his face. Captain Cold glanced between Weather Wizard and Pied Piper carefully, as if he was worried that they were going to do something. Robin didn't know what  _that_  was all about, but he knew that as long as it didn't affect the Rogues' performance, then he didn't have time to care about it.

Mirror Master responded sarcastically, "So you'll leave Momentum to the wolves? You'll let him turn into some psychopath monster who kills and deals and isn't the least bit remorseful about it? You've heard about the jobs he's running for the Light! You've heard how worried people are about the fact that he's been improving so fast. He hasn't failed a job yet. And the jobs are getting more and more dangerous. You know he wouldn't be smart enough to get out if the danger got to be too much. He'd just keep running right into it!"

"And who's fault would that be?" Weather Wizard shot back.

Trickster gave the weather themed villain a scandalized look, "I thought we weren't playing the blaming game! Wasn't that one of the rules for until Momentum gets back?" By the end, he was facing Cold with a dangerously wobbling lip and clasped hands.

Captain Cold sighed and pinched his nose. It was almost amusing how quickly the other Rogues straightened up and stopped their argument. Apparently Cold sighing and pinching his nose was a sign of bad things to come. Cold ignored his team for the moment and faced Robin, "We'll talk about finding the mole. That doesn't mean that we're going to do it, but we're going to talk about it and decide if it's worth it. We'll meet up with you when we decide." He then turned his back to the young acrobat – a clear dismissal.

Feeling slightly miffed, but not caring enough to get into an argument about it, Dick jumped off the roof and attached a grappling hook to a nearby building. He lowered himself quickly to the ground and then raced off into the night.

He didn't get far before his phone started ringing. He glanced curiously at the name and was surprised to see that it was Roy who was calling him. Lately it seemed like Roy didn't have enough time for him anymore. The ruby archer was always away doing 'League stuff' or working to save up the money to survive now that he was living alone. When he wasn't doing that, he was patrolling. Even at the Cave, they didn't really get a chance to talk to each other like Dick wanted to. Everyone was always too tense at the Cave nowadays. Everyone was suspecting everyone else of being the mole and tensions were running off the charts because of failed missions and home troubles and the result was something that was just truly awful. It was a mess that didn't allow for a lot of time to have a heart to heart with someone.

Robin answered the phone swiftly, ducking into an alley and pressing a few things on his wrist computer to make sure that any cameras nearby wouldn't pick up his conversation, "Hey, Red Arrow. What's up?"

"Do you think you could come over to my place? We should talk." Roy threw back.

Robin frowned, worry coating his voice, "Your Red Arrow place, or your place?"

"My place. I'm not patrolling tonight." Roy shot back.

Robin's eyebrows rose even as he responded in the affirmative and started running towards the nearest zeta beam transporter. It was strange for Roy to not be patrolling. He had some obsessive need to show that he was better than Oliver and, at least partially, that meant patrolling every night without exception. It was one of the many, many things the two had argued about when they'd still been living under the same roof. Whatever Roy was upset about must have seriously upset him if he was willing to skip patrol to talk about it.

Moments later found Robin at Roy's apartment, sliding into through the window with practiced ease. Dick called out, "Yo, Roy, you in here?"

"Of course I'm in here, moron. I wouldn't have called you over if you weren't. You in your suit?" Roy called back, voice low and surly.

Dick rolled his eyes at his friend's typical grouchy behavior before calling back, "Always am! Give me a second to go grab some of my stuff from the closet. I'll change and then we can talk." They had gotten to the point that it was easier for the two of them to just leave civvies at each other's houses so they could go on patrols and then hang out afterwards. Dick quickly changed into some of those civvies and padded into the living room of the apartment. He plopped down on the couch next to Roy and grabbed the older hero's drink, taking a swig before placing it gently down on the table in front of them.

Roy broke the silence immediately after the glass was settled onto the table, "There are periods of time where I don't remember anything."

Dick glanced at his friend sharply, "While you're in the suit, or while you're out of it."

"Both. Mainly when I'm out of it." Roy answered morosely. He glared at the drink that sat innocently in the cup on the table. Roy was a drinker and would almost always prefer alcohol, but he'd realized that alcohol was more expensive than some other drinks and, for the time being, money was a precious commodity to him that even he knew better than to waste on things like a cheap buzz.

Dick sat back against the sofa, letting out a breath of air as he thought over the situation. He spoke quietly, "That's not good."

Roy snorted, "Figure that out yourself, did you?"

"I'm not the protégé of the world's greatest detective for no reason." Dick answered, playfully pushing out his chest. Roy let a tiny smile grace his lips as he shoved Dick to the side. The former circus brat let that count as a victory and grinned himself in celebration. The grin dimmed a little as he thought about the situation that had brought them together, "Were there any similarities before the blank periods? Any of the same people you saw those days? Did you fight the same villain, the same group, etc. on all those days?"

Roy pointed to the papers spread across the coffee table that Dick had noticed but chosen to ignore. Now, he plucked them from the table and started glancing through them. It was a long list of the occurrences that made up the two days before and after each memory blank. As time went on, there were even a couple of spots where he'd have a memory blank during the two days after the first memory blank. The list was only describing the past two months and there were only about six memory blanks, but that was still almost one a week and it was obvious to see that the time between blank periods was increasing as time went on.

"Have you gone to a doctor? It could be something genetic or a contracted disease of some sort." Dick asked, brow furrowing in worry.

Closing his eyes, Roy settled his head against the back of the sofa, "I went yesterday. They said that they didn't see anything wrong with the tests that they got immediate results from, but they're waiting on the tests that they had to send out. They'll call me as soon as they possibly can because 'they realize how serious of an issue this is and all the problems that can result from it'. They even gave me a doctor's note to excuse me from work if I was so inclined, but work wouldn't give me paid absence, so that's not happening. All the doctors could say for the moment is to stay relaxed and try to get some rest. Drink some more water. All the normal junk."

Feeling suddenly impulsive, Dick reached over and hugged Roy, "Maybe you should take their advice. Going to work might not be the best idea with this kind of problem. And going out on patrol like that can be a serious problem. I know you don't like to take charity, but maybe you could ask someone to watch your side of the city and-,"

Roy interrupted him before he could go further, "I'm worried about Momentum, too. He still hasn't responded to me. I keep texting him every day, but, if he deigns to respond, he just sends me false sounding reassurances and then says that he's doing training. He's  _always_  doing training. I text him during the day and at night and at all sorts of weird hours and he either won't answer or he's training. I thought I could maybe narrow down where he was by trying to figure out when he's sleeping, but his hours are so freaking messed up that I can't get anything. He says that he doesn't know where he's staying, but I  _know_  he's left the building before. You saw him on that mission! He leaves and he goes places, but then he keeps telling me that he has no clue where he is! That's not how it works! Why would he lie to me? What are they doing to him?"

It broke Dick's heart that Roy sounded more upset about what was happening to Momentum than he did about what was happening to him. Somehow, Momentum had really wormed his way into the tough archer's heart. And the worse thing was, Dick didn't know how to answer Roy's questions. He didn't know what was happening with the missing memories and he didn't know what was happening with Momentum and he didn't know who the mole was and he didn't seem to know  _anything_  anymore and for someone who prided themselves on their detective work, that stung.

So Dick did the only thing he could think of and he pulled Roy into another hug. Neither of the heroes said anything. They just hugged each other and hoped that everything would work out. Neither of them were foolish enough to believe that their hope would come true.

LLLLLL

Len couldn't believe that the Rogues were stupid enough to get into a fight right in front of the mini Bats. What were they thinking? It was bad enough that the group was arguing so much in private. They didn't need that broadcasted to anyone else. The Rogues were supposed to be a united stronghold in Central City that terrified other criminals into leaving the city in the Rogues' capable hands.

Then again, that was one of the things they were fighting about. Digger, Mick, and Mark all believed that they should split the group up for a little bit. They thought that there should be a rotating group of Rogues back in Central while the rest worked on getting info from the Light and making sure the mini heroes didn't win too many of the battles. It was a good idea in theory: Central was going crazy in their absence. Small time thieves were running through the city like little cockroaches. Gorilla Grodd was trampling as many as he could, but there was only so much a single, telepathic gorilla could do. The Flash was just as busy, so he wasn't doing as many patrols as he normally did so he really wasn't helping all that much either.

Digger had originally suggested the idea of putting a few of their members back in Central to regain order, but Sam had immediately shot it down. The two of them were currently Not Talking unless it was to scream at each other about the idea.

Then there was the entire search for Wally in general. Mark and Hartley were going head to head about that more than the rest of them. Len had thought that the two had worked out their issues while they were interrogating Red Arrow, but apparently not.

Digger and Mick were arguing about Hartley and James's schooling. They were supposed to be in school right now, but they'd been absent or missing most of the day for several weeks now and it was starting to get attention. Luckily, the Rogues had a doctor who was more than willing to write them some notes for excuses, but that would only work for so long. Plus, education was important and the two of them did need some interaction with normal human beings.

James and Hartley were in a huge fight about James taking his meds. It was widely accepted that Hartley would be the first line of defense when James wouldn't take them because Hartley was the most likely to be able to convince the kid that he needed them or that there was a good reason to take them. That first line of defense was slowly crumbling, though, especially with Hartley trying to deal with Mark and also trying to stop Mick from convincing the others that he should go back to school instead of try to get to Wally. James without his meds was not a variable that Len wanted added into this already convoluted formula.

Len, admittedly, had a part in the escalation of this. He should have acted sooner. He should have made sure that the group had their issues worked out before he kept pushing them. He'd been so focused on making game plans for all of the individual fights they'd been having with the mini heroes. He didn't want to seriously hurt them because he needed them to be in top fighting form for when they eventually took the Light down, but he still needed to do his job of keeping them away from the lower key missions. If the Rogues couldn't do that much then there was no chance of them ever seeing Wally again and he certainly would not stand for that. So he informed the little league about the really important missions and made sure that the Rogues were beaten – not easily – in those events, but he never informed them about the little things that the Light was doing. He didn't want himself or the Rogues to be implicated in any of this.

His busyness wasn't an excuse, though. He was the leader of the Rogues and he'd sworn to protect them, even if that meant from each other. Especially if that meant from each other. So now he needed to get them straightened out and figure out what it was that they were really fighting about.

Len wasn't stupid. The Rogues were never fighting about what they say they are. None of them were stupid enough to cause that much trouble for little things like that. So he needed to know what it was that has the whole group so tense that they're willing to be fighting so viciously with each other for. He knew that it was about Wally. He  _knew_ that something about Wally – his background, his actions before leaving, the actual leaving itself, etc. – was what was really bothering the group and causing the divides, but he wasn't sure what it  _exactly_  was.

He was determined to figure it out.

And that was what found him sitting the Rogues down in one of their out of state safe houses. He glared at each of them, making sure that they could tell that he was Not Amused. There was a layer of ice in his eyes and in his voice when he demanded, "What, exactly, was that?"

"That was a bunch of idiots who can't keep their mouths shut in front of a hero." Hartley muttered sullenly.

Mark snapped, "Yeah, because you were so great at it yourself." Hartley bared his teeth at the older villain.

Len's glare got them back on track rather quickly, "I didn't ask you to blame each other. I asked you what that was? What has been with all of you these past few weeks? You've been arguing and annoying me for too long now. You're going to work it out now. We're not leaving until you can work together on the field and stop being embarrassments to the Rogue name."

Hartley and James hung their heads, still young enough and new enough to the group that they could still be so easily chastised. The adults of the group weren't as easily cowed, however and they simply glared at Len grimly. He glared back. They named him the leader of the group for a reason and he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Sam was the first to break, "I'm worried about Wally. I don't care what he does while he's with the Light. I don't care if he turns into some sort of murderer or whatever. None of us are particularly innocent so we can't blame him for going astray either. I just don't want him to get hurt. We worked  _so hard_  to get him to start to trust us – I'm under no delusions that he completely trusted us. He wouldn't have left if he had completely trusted us, but at the very least we got him to start the trust process and the Light are going to ruin that. I can already tell that they're going to break him if he's left there for too long and… he's one of us. He's a  _Rogue_. He's  _one of us_  and we can't protect him where he is and that terrifies me." Sam paused to give everyone a truly acidic look, "I'm not getting soft or any of that garbage if that's what you're thinking! I'm not some hero who goes all emotional at the tiniest little thing!"

Digger smiled softly into the boomerang he was fixing up. Len wasn't sure if anyone else saw it, but he did, so that was a start. Hartley broke next. Despite the fact that teen had been ridiculously guarded when he first came to them, Hartley ended up being the most emotional of the group and the one most likely to talk about what he was feeling. Len thought it had something to do with a fear of the Rogues turning into an unfeeling, unloving group like his family had been. Hartley said, "I'm worried about Wally too. That's why I don't want to stop looking for him. He's practically my  _brother_. I  _know_  that he chose to leave, but he was misinformed and, like Sam said, he still hadn't gotten to the point of completely trusting us yet. For him, trusting people is a delicate thing and he always assumes that people are going to break their promises." He paused before hesitantly continuing, "You guys remember how upset I got when my family didn't even file a missing persons report when I ran away. And then you guys remember how happy I was when you guys got me out of jail that first time. I'm pretty distrustful too and I understand how terrifying it is to know that no one is looking for you when you go missing. I understand how heartbreaking that is. And I feel like I'm  _failing_  Wally if I don't do everything I can to find him like you guys did everything you could to find me."

Mark clenched his fists and bit the inside of his lip. Len saw the indecision on his face, but he was still surprised when Mark was the next one to speak. The weather themed villain hated talking about feelings almost as much as Len did. He cleared his throat slightly and said, "I know some of you think that I don't miss Wally as much as the rest of you." He glared at Hartley. The teen's expression twisted, but he didn't throw back his customary vicious glare. Mark cleared his throat again, "That's wrong. I miss Wally as much as I'd miss any of you if you were in his situation. Scratch that, I miss Wally more than I'd miss some of you losers. I'm just not that good with explaining that. I don't show it the normal way."

"So I'm taking it," Len began, "That the reason that you've all started ridiculous infighting and stupid arguments is because you're all worried about Wally and don't think that we're doing enough or the right thing. Is that correct?"

The gathered Rogues nodded sheepishly, except for James. He was following a dust mote with wide eyes and a wide open mouth. Len rolled his eyes, "Hartley, get James his meds. Don't take no for an answer. Digger, you and Mick go back to Central and try to get the criminals over there under control. If you need backup, we'll send in Sam. Hartley, James. I want you two to email your teachers  _tonight_  and get all of the work that you've missed. I know that you've been keeping up with a little bit of it, but I need you to get all of it. You are not repeating a year because of this. Midterms are only a couple weeks away now and you two better gets As on all of them. Maybe try to go to school at least twice a week. We can get you made up so you look sick but are valiantly trying to keep up with the school work or something like that. Once Christmas break starts, you'll be free to do this full time. As for the idea that we're not doing everything we could be doing, I'm open to listening for ideas. As far as I'm concerned, we're doing everything that we can be doing without getting someone hurt and without stretching ourselves too thin."

There was a long moment of silence before Mark shocked them again, "I say we do what mini Bats asked us to. We don't have to do any sort of fancy spy work, but we could still at least try to dig around a little bit more and maybe ask a few more questions. We're not getting anywhere with what we're doing. I feel like no matter how many times we let the little leaguers win, the Light is still ahead. It's like they don't even need to do the things they're doing. It feels like they're stalling for something. I don't know if it's research or whatever, but it's definitely not something the League is going to like. Right now, the Light is just playing with its food."

Cold frowned decisively, "That will make it all the more perfect when the food bites back." The rest of the Rogues nodded with him. They weren't perfect, but at least now they weren't going to rip each other's throats out in the middle of a conversation. Len inwardly rolled his eyes. Next thing he knew, the Rogues were going to be rescuing kittens from trees.

PPPPPP

Patrick coughed harshly and doubled over, one hand clutching his stomach and the other resting on his knee. That was possibly the most difficult and dangerous job interview he had ever had the misfortune of experiencing. On the plus side, he got immediate response on whether he got in or not. The man who'd tested him (Patrick died a little bit inside via fanboy overload when he realized that he was being tested by none other than the infamous Sportsmaster) was going over the notes he'd taken during Patrick's performance and Patrick was resting tiredly off to the side. He was kind of impressed that the Light could afford to let someone as awesome as Sportsmaster check incoming members, but he certainly wasn't complaining.

Sportsmaster glanced over and Patrick straightened immediately. He could tell that Sportsmaster was smirking at him when he said, "And why, exactly, do you want to join the Light? We aren't exactly advertising."

Patrick shrugged, working hard to make sure that his shoulders didn't roll too far and end up flopping over or something embarrassing like that. He answered easily, "I'm out of job – my ring left me behind on the heist that gave me my powers – so I need something that can pay for me and my new girl. Besides, the Light's gonna win and my ma always taught me to be on the winning side."

That startled a laugh out of Sportsmaster and he clapped Patrick on the back, rumbling, "Good answer. Welcome to the Light, Plastic Man." Patrick just grinned at him.

Sportsmaster left rather quickly after that. He didn't get a chance to explain much of anything to Patrick, so the man was left standing in the empty training room and struggling to figure out where to go. He knew that he needed to do some ninja snooping and he needed to scope out the area and then he needed to find Wally, but he wasn't sure at all where to start that because he didn't know where in the building he was. He didn't even know where the building was.

Before Patrick could try to wander the halls aimlessly and use his 'I'm lost' excuse to get away with snooping, the door to the training room opened quickly, a yellow and red blur speeding into the room. Patrick blinked at it, more than a little shocked when the blur solidified into the form of Momentum.

Wally's voice was incredulous when he asked loudly, " _Eel_?"

"Wally!" Patrick cried, throwing his arms out and grinning widely, "My man, how are you? I'm digging the suit, by the way. It's  _way_  better than whatever it was that you had on back at that dive. Also, the name's Plastic Man now, remember? Who would have guessed that the kid who got me my girlfriend would be here with me at the Light HQ? What a small world, yeah? So, bro, I don't really remember ever discussing the fact that you have super speed. Because that was definitely super speed. I totally thought that you were just some kid who had a good ring to keep them afloat, but apparently not because you're in the Light – who would  _not_  keep you afloat if you were in trouble – and you've got superpowers!"

The look on the exposed part of Wally's face made Patrick burst out laughing, clutching his still sore stomach. Wally was still frowning though, "C'mon, seriously? This place isn't a joke. The missions are dangerous and the coworkers are even more so. You can't just come in here because you want to. If you're here, you should be here to help the Light and get their jobs done."

"You're asking me 'seriously'?" Patrick shot back, eyebrows raised farther than it should really be possible to raise them, "I know the dangers, kid. I'm not that naïve. Besides, you're starting to sound just like them. That was the same spiel I got from the agent that picked me up and patted me down and that was the same spiel I got from the person who did my interview. I don't need that same spiel from you. Where's that good humor? Where's that sparkling personality?"

"He's just tired because he had a mission. He always gets a little cranky when he's back from a couple day long mission, especially if it's with someone that he doesn't know as well as Cheshire or Sportsmaster even. Cheshire was collecting info from the drop and Sportsmaster was interviewing you, obviously, so Momentum had to go on a job with someone new." The speaker was a kid probably a year or so older than Wally with ice like skin and pure white hair.

Wally moaned to the kid, "I don't get cranky because I'm tired or because I'm on a mission with someone new. I get cranky because the ones who don't know me, don't trust me and because they don't trust me, they make me ride in whatever  _infernally slow_  vehicle they decided to use. And it's so. Incredibly. Annoying."

The kid laughed and slung an arm over Wally's shoulder, grinning at Patrick, "Don't listen to him while he's like this. The name's Icicle Jr. Who're you?"

"Plastic Man's the name. Stealing's the game." Patrick made sure to shoot finger guns afterwards. Finger guns were always a nice touch. Unless one was at a child's birthday party. The kids were cool with it, but the mothers converged on you for corrupting their poor children. It was a nightmare.

Icicle Jr. snorted, "I can see how you and Momentum became… acquaintances. You've got the same stupid sense of humor." The white haired kid didn't even give Patrick a chance to be offended before he plowed on, "So, I'm guessing by the way that Sportsmaster power walked out of here that no one actually offered to guide you around?"

Patrick laughed, "That would be why I'm still standing around in the training room."

"Not surprised, man. Not surprised at all. We'll get you a grand tour right now if you don't mind. You gonna be bunking here or no?" Icicle Jr. asked.

Wally interrupted before Patrick got a chance to respond, "Whoa, hey. What grand tour? I've been here for, like, more than a month now and I've never gotten a grand tour. I found out four days ago that there was a pool!"

"And that," Icicle Jr. answered sagely, "Is why I was not surprised that Plastic Man didn't get a tour. We here at the Light are exceptionally bad at remembering to actually give people a tour of the place they end up living in. I've been meaning to give you one, but the higher ups have been running you ragged. I mean, dang man, you've got more missions already than a good portion of the older members. Plus, whenever you're back from missions, you're either training or-,"

Icicle Jr. stopped talking as a figure Patrick recognized as Cheshire sashayed into the room. She glanced at him Patrick appraisingly before turning to Wally, "The lab wants to go over some tests results. Come on." Wally gave the two of them an apologetic wave before disappearing out of the room.

The white haired teen's shoulders slumped as he finished his statement, "You're either training or at the lab."

Patrick's brows furrowed, "The lab? What do they want with him?"

Icicle Jr. sighed, glaring at the door Wally had left through, "I've got no idea. All I know is that I don't like it. I don't think you understand how crazy busy Wally is. Like I said, they've got him running all sorts of missions because he's the likeliest to get them done the quickest. And then Cheshire trains him  _constantly_  because he's never had any sort of formal training before he came here. I mean, he had a little bit with the Rogues, but that was mainly team training instead of individual like the Light focuses on. I barely got to hang out with him when that was all he did, but about two weeks ago, Cheshire took him to the lab for the first time. I didn't see him until breakfast the next morning. He looked exhausted, but he didn't seem hurt or anything. All I can get out of Wally is that they're running tests on him."

Patrick made sure to adopt a slightly worried expression, "I mean, as long as he's not getting hurt and doesn't seem to be actively against it, then I guess it's alright."

Icicle Jr.'s expression matched Patrick's as the teen continued to stare at the door, "Yeah, I guess so. It still sucks, though. It's kind of awesome to have someone your own age to hang out with when you're surrounded by a bunch of old people otherwise. No offence."

A wry smile crossed Patrick's lips as he said, "None taken, man." He ruffled Icicle Jr.'s hair and bowed his entire torso out sideways without moving his shoulders or hips to avoid the icicle blast the teenaged villain shot at each other. They both blinked at each other with wide eyes before Patrick laughed and said, "I like you, kid. You're a lot like, what was it you called him? Momentum. You're a lot like him. And that's a compliment in case you were wondering. Come on, Momentum can take care of himself. Let's go get me that grand tour of yours so I can lord it over his head that I've done it and he hasn't."

"Ha! He's going to be  _so_  jealous! Maybe this will convince him to stop going to the lab!" Icicle Jr. crowed victoriously. Patrick's heart broke a little bit at the sight.

Icicle Jr. and Wally were just  _kids_. Patrick knew that at their age, he was training for cross country and trying to survive his accelerated classes and stressing about his girlfriends finding out about each other. These kids? They were training for serious fighting and trying to survive their dangerous missions and stressing about what's happening to the one that's constantly being called to the supervillain lab. This wasn't something that kids should face.

Patrick knew that this was a part of the world he lived in. He knew that for a lot of these kids, this was their only chance. Metahumans weren't particularly well-liked by the rest of the world. There were hospitals that wouldn't help metahumans and there were people who would beat metahumans half to death if they found them on the streets. There were parents who would toss their metahumans kids out like trash. The only real protection and guarantee of safety came from the people who wanted to use you. Kids like the two of them were only safe when they were still useful. If they could find someone who wanted to use their powers and offered food, shelter, friends, training, etc., they practically didn't have another choice but to join.

And the worst part about that was the fact that the kids would run themselves through the ground trying to make certain that they remained useful for their employers. The kids would take on the most difficult missions and they'd put themselves through the most difficult training and they'd be the first ones to run into danger. Kids who had something to prove because it was the only thing keeping them alive were often the ones who went first.

That was a trait that Patrick could already see in both of these boys. Icicle Jr. and Wally were both so eager to make sure that they were useful to those around themselves that they would get themselves killed. Or worse: they would make themselves too useful and they'd regret that just as much. Patrick gazed worriedly in the direction Wally had walked off before gazing just as worriedly at his tour guide. He was a hero now. He would do his absolute best to make sure that he saved both of these teens. He could do it. He  _would_  do it. For them. For his own atonement.

WWWWWW

"You know him?" Cheshire asked mildly as her and Wally walked towards the labs.

Wally nodded, a small smile crossing his lips at the thought of Plastic Man, "Yeah. I met him at a supervillain bar. We commiserated over our woes and helped each other out and have been talking and helping each other since then. Last I checked, he hadn't had powers though. I mean, he'd said that after the heist with his group went wrong he could do things that he couldn't do before, but I didn't really know what that meant. I certainly hadn't thought he had superpowers."

There was a disdainful note in Cheshire's voice when she questioned, "There are supervillain  _bars_?"

"Hey, don't be hating. It was real classy. All the waitresses were dressed as some of the big supervillains – Catwoman, Captain Cold, Riddler, Cheetah, Morgan le Fey, so on so forth. You have to have a mask to get in. You have to prove supervillain skills, but you only have to do it the once. They've got the same bouncer and he'll always recognize you. He's pretty chill." Wally threw back, eyes idly skipping over the walls. Cameron had a point when he said that the higher ups were running Wally ragged. He didn't mind though; it meant that he was being useful to them and that was all he wanted.

"He must be rather 'chill' if he was willing to let a fifteen year old into a bar." Cheshire stated. There was definite judgement in her voice.

Wally defended himself, "It's not like I can get drunk anyways."

Cheshire tilted her head at him curiously, "Why not?"

"Metabolism. I've got to have a superfast metabolism to deal with the rest of my superfast-ness and that means that by the time the alcohol would normally take effect, I've already processed it. I've got to have some, like, alien grade strong stuff to get tipsy. The normal drinks don't do a thing to me." Wally lamented. He had the vague idea that Cheshire was vigorously rolling her eyes under her mask. Speaking of, Wally asked cautiously, "Hey, are you ever going to show me what you look like under the mask?"

Apparently his question caught her off guard because her hand twitched slightly in surprise before she answered firmly, "We'll see." She didn't give him a chance to respond before saying, "We're at the lab."

Wally, used to Cheshire's mood swings, walked through the doors he'd become intimately familiar in the past two weeks. He'd visited the lab every single day that he'd been home from missions. He remembered the first time:

_Wally and Cheshire had just finished a training session. Sportsmaster had been observing from the sidelines, throwing out suggestions on what to do better for both Wally and Cheshire. Wally figured that he might as well take everything he could get, but Cheshire purposely continued to do the things that Sportsmaster told her were wrong. Their relationship had calmed a little bit as time went on, but Wally doubted that the two would ever get over whatever it was the had them so worked up._

_Almost as soon as the two had gotten off the mat, Sportsmaster cryptically said, "He's ready." He promptly walked out of the room._

_Wally paused where he was toweling his neck, "Uh… ready for what exactly?"_

_"It's not up to him to decide when you're ready." Cheshire said, giving off the impression of a scowl._

_"Wait, hold up here. Ready for_ what _?" Wally asked, brows furrowing._

_Cheshire turned her mask towards him, "You really don't want to know. I don't think you're ready for it and I won't have my training ruined by you not being ready for the higher up's plans."_

_"Do I not get any say in it?" Wally had demanded, hands on hips and his towel slung around his shoulders._

_Bluntly, Cheshire asked, "Do you want to get experimented on?"_

_Wally blanched, "I…_ what _?"_

_"You heard me. Luthor's scientists believe that you're the best candidate for some relatively harmless tests. It won't be anything like the bad experiences you already have, but you've already had bad experiences with human experimentation. I don't want it messing with your mental state." Cheshire responded easily._

_Eyes narrowed, Wally asked cautiously, "What is it that they're researching that they think I'm the best bet? Would I need to be restrained or would I have to wear an inhibitor collar?"_

_Cheshire eyed him curiously, "From what I heard, it's one hundred percent voluntary and wouldn't require any form of restraints – including an inhibitor collar. Apparently they've already done that stage of testing. They just need to look at your reactions to certain things and test some of your blood, ask you a few questions. Apparently the only instances of pain are getting the blood drawn and getting intermittent shots to make sure that nothing in the lab could infect you. That's about it. You can't seriously be thinking about doing this?"_

_Wally shrugged, "Luthor was the one who brought me here and introduced me to this world. If the testing is as mild as you say it is, then I might as well start to repay Luthor by helping him out with his experiments. I just… could you be there too? In case it starts to get… not as mild as you've described. I know that you'll side with the Light over me, but it would still be nice to see a friendly face there."_

_Cheshire had paused and stared at him for such a long time that Wally began to think that he'd disappointed her in some way or another, but then she'd turned on her heel and said, "Then let's get it over with."_

_Wally had been confident about his decision until the two of them had reached the door and he'd glanced in and seen men in white lab coats and trays of surgical tools and a white leather adjustable chair. Suddenly it was years ago and he was too new to his speed, too young, too used to be beaten and manhandled and there were scientists surrounding him, telling him to run and run and run and keep running even when he was puking and passing out and there were scientists who were telling him that they needed just a little bit more blood even though he'd already given so much and he couldn't see straight and his head was spinning even though he was lying down and there were scientists talking about their daughter's third birthday while he screamed and writhed with every burst of electricity they sent straight into his nerves and –_

_Cheshire's concerned hand on his back was what finally snapped him out of it. Her voice was sharp when she asked, "What was that?"_

_His breathing was shallow and shaky when he responded, "Nothing. Nothing. It was just… I just… Sorry, sorry, sorry."_

_"It's alright. You're fine. It was a flashback wasn't it? What part of the room set you off?" Cheshire asked carefully._

_Wally wanted to answer that it was everything that set him off, but honestly, "It's mainly the chair. There was… the chair they had me… the chair I spent most of the experiments in… it was just like that. It was white and leather and it moved up and down and the strapswrappedaroundmychestandIcouldn'tgetoutandIcouldn'tandtherewasnoescapeand -,"_

_"Stop Wally." Cheshire commanded. The sound immediately brought him out of the panic he'd been spiraling himself into. Cheshire straightened suddenly and said, "I'll be right back." She glided into the lab and slammed the door behind her. Wally wanted to call after her and tell her how dangerous it was and how she shouldn't go in there and how he didn't want her to get hurt like he did. But he was still too out of breath from his moment of panic to manage it. He hadn't had a panic attack about his time in that lab for a long time. He'd honestly done his best to block it out entirely. He was going to have some wicked nightmares the next couple of nights._

_When he came back to himself again, Cheshire was standing in front of him, "There's a difference between then and now._ I'm _here this time. I won't let them hurt you." Wally stared into her mask and, somehow, believed her. He looked past her and widened his eyes when he saw one of the hospital cots from the infirmary. Someone had put this truly ugly pastel flower covering on it, but it wasn't the white that Wally had so grown to hate over his time with his tormentors. He couldn't believe that the scientists would do this. He knew from experience that it was hard for the scientists to reach over the bed to get certain instruments or get a certain tube or knife in the right spot. He knew that it was inconvenient and bulky and would be annoying to deal with when he wasn't there, but they had still done it. They weren't like the ones who'd veritably tortured him all that time before. He was safe here and he'd be fine. He'd be fine._

"Momentum!" Cheshire snapped quickly.

Wally came back into himself, shaking his head slightly, "Sorry, what was it you said?"

"You've been distracted lately." Cheshire said instead of answering his question.

He shrugged, "I've been busy. I'm learning a lot too. It's easy to get distracted. I'll work on it though." He wasn't sure what her whole deal was. It was like the first time all over again when she'd stared at him inscrutably for a long, long moment and then acted like it'd never happened. Wally wondered what she saw when she looked at him like that. Did she see someone worth fighting next to? Or did she see a tool she needed to build up?

She never responded, instead stepping quickly up to the door and opening it, stepping smoothly inside and holding the door open for Wally to zip in after her. The head scientist greeted Wally, "Hey there. How was your mission?"

"Successful. No injuries either!" Wally responded. He knew better than to give away any details. He'd never asked what the clearance levels of the scientists was and he didn't want to assume anything, so he just didn't mention any specifics.

He didn't know their names either. They'd just fussed over him when he'd asked them the first time and they never offered their names up, so he just didn't ask them. The head scientist nodded with a smile and said, "Alright, here's the twice a week shot. You have your food log, right? We need to know what you've been eating to get accurate results."

Wally nodded seriously, taking some papers out of one of his arm compartments and handing them to the mousy looking scientist who did all the paperwork and a lot of the recordings of events. It had been painstaking to record every little thing he'd eaten, but it was worth it to help. The scientists had even let Wally help out with some of the tests that had to be done on other patients. He'd enjoyed doing the blood tests and making the buffers and running the gels. He loved science, honestly. He didn't care that he was doing the newbie work around the lab as long as he got to help and do science.

The head scientist started talking again, grabbing out Wally's file and going over the most recent results, double checking a few of the immediate response tests and explaining the meaning behind each of the tests. Wally still didn't know what the experiments were for, but he knew it had something to do with him being a metahuman. Honestly, it didn't really matter to him. He was starting to fit more and more into the Light. If that meant experiments and late night training and tons of missions then he was willing to go through it. Eventually, they'd trust him more and he'd be able to kick back a little. He'd get that grand tour from Cameron and he'd race Patrick in the pool (could Wally swim to the other end faster than Patrick could stretch an arm to the other end?) and, eventually, he'd get to see the Rogues again. And he'd be free to leave the premises and see Freddie. It would be really nice to see Freddie again. He missed his friend. Hopefully that hard earned trust would come soon. Wally was getting pretty worn down from the pace he was living at currently. But he only had to do it for a little longer.


	28. The Mole

HHHHHH

Hartley grumbled quietly as he walked, "I don't see why you had me and James doing this. What happened to working on our school work? Anything about the fact that we have midterms next week and you think we should study ring a bell? And don't give me that 'you'll fit in better' bull that you spewed earlier. We are actually the only children in this entire building." James giggled next to him. The passing goon gave them a strange look.

A voice came from Hartley's hip, "You're the best improv person we've got. You're also the least recognizable." It was Sam responding from the mirror he was looking through. It was secured into Hartley's belt to the point that it looked like it fit with the rest of the outfit. It was almost impossible to see Sam's face peering out of it.

Hartley hissed at him, "Then why is  _Trickster_  the one you decided to send with me? He might be one of the newest Rogues, but I'm pretty sure that  _everyone_  can identify that actual  _mess_  of a suit."

"You're small and can run faster according to Mark." Sam added drily.

Hartley simply pinched his nose in response. He and James continued their trek down the hallways. They were in the residential area of the Light's headquarters. This was their way of trying to find  _something_  to help them identify the mole. At first, they'd just tried out their connections, feeling around to see if anyone had a clue, but there was nothing. As a week passed and then another, the Rogues noticed that the Light was getting increasingly busier and more hectic. A lot of missions were grounding to a halt as people were recalled and a lot of new missions were being set forth with the recalled people. The big battle was coming soon and the little league needed to know who the mole was before that point. If they didn't… Hartley wasn't sure what would happen. There was a good chance that the League wouldn't win.

"What am I even looking for?" Hartley sighed.

Sam responded, "Len says that you're looking for one of the little leaguers or a sign of their presence. Their name on a document, someone talking about them, one of their weapons left behind. Something like that. That's what I said, Len! Okay, sorry! I didn't use  _exactly_  the same words that you did. Why? I didn't need to! That's why! Stop yelling at me!"

Hartley sighed and rolled his eyes. He was honestly the most mature member of this entire team. Everyone else was a complete moron.

Before Hartley could tell the two to shut up already, he heard someone say the name Wally. Eyes widening, Hartley moved silently towards a wall. He motioned Trickster to keep moving forward with his walking teddy bear beside him so the person who said Wally's name would believe that whomever was walking by had already completely left. Hartley would meet up with Trickster as soon as he figured out why this guy said Wally's name. He peered around the corner and narrowed his eyes at the vision in front of him.

The man was wearing an… interesting outfit. The suit was bright red and long sleeved, but his chest was exposed by a slit that went all the way down to his black and gold belt and was just barely held together by some sparse lacing. His shorts were the definition of short-shorts. There were huge white glasses with black lenses on his tan face, winking out at the hallway under wavy black hair. It was definitely a unique wardrobe choice for a villain. Hartley was listening to the red-garbed man's side of the conversation and could just make out what the voice on the other end of the call was saying. He relayed the conversation quietly to those listening in through the mirror on his belt. The red-garbed man was saying, "- isn't just me that they're not allowing to leave. Wally was a special case in that he couldn't leave even though he joined all that time ago, but now they aren't letting anyone leave the compound unless they're on a mission. People who joined as recently as I did are even still blindfolded and disoriented when we leave. I came in with the last wave of people trying to nab a job with the Light. No one else is allowed since it's so close to the Big Day. Whatever that is."

The other voice said, " _Have you gotten a chance to talk to Wally alone?_ "

Red-garbed Man responded with a sigh, "Are you kidding me? You heard what they're doing to the poor kid. The little ginger's being run through the gauntlet. Between training, missions, and the lab, the kid's barely getting enough time to eat and sleep. Those scientists must be pretty stupid too since they seemingly aren't able to see the giant bags under his eyes or the way his suit hangs off him just a little bit. Even his trainer, Cheshire, is starting to get worried about him. According to some of the other guys around here, she had been forcibly removed from the lab one day because she went to go yell at them after Wally went to sleep. There's literally zero chance for me to talk to him."

The other voice sighed, " _We'll deal with that eventually. Do you know what the scientists are doing to him?_ "

"You don't understand how hard it is to figure that out, man. I mean, it took me forever. Most people didn't even know Wally was being sent to the lab. Then all I got was that they were doing experiments on metahumans for some metahuman thing. Someone mentioned that it was Luthor's project, but the rest of the head team were all invested in the project for some reason or another. At that point, I gave up trying to see if anyone knew a thing about it because it was obvious that the people who I'm expected to interact with don't have a clue. So I did some super sleuthing with my super skills and I listened in on one of the conversations in the labs. Apparently they've been injecting Wally with some substance twice a week. From what I gathered… I'm not sure how accurate this is, but from what I gathered, now that they've built up enough of the stuff in Wally's system, the scientists are able to shut his powers off."

Hartley almost fell back in shock. He actually had to take a moment to compose himself before he could relay the rest of that statement to his team. That was… to be able to shut off a meta's power like that. How did they  _do_  that? Why did they want that? Thankfully, it seemed like whomever was on the other side of the phone call was just as shocked as Hartley was because he was silent for a good few moments. It was enough for Hartley to recover so he could start relaying the conversation again once it started up.

The other voice sounded strangled when he spoke, " _What… how… Wally is in incredible danger. Think about the missions they send him on. If his powers were cut off during that time..._ "

"Yeah, I get it." Red-garbed Man responded, "I'll work on getting him alone to have a conversation with him. So, any news for me?"

" _There's nothing much to report. I mean, Robin's apparently got some sort of informant who's getting him information about the Light. That's where the Team is getting most of their missions. No one can figure out who it is. Robin won't say who the informant is. Could you try to look around and see if you can figure out who the snitch is?_ " The other voice asked.

Red-garbed Man's eyebrows rose, "You saying there's someone grassing on the Light and they don't know about it yet?"

" _This the first time you hear about a snitch?_ " The other questioned. Red-garbed Man answered in the affirmative and the other voice responded, " _Then yeah, there's someone informing on the Light and they don't know about it yet. I'm sure you'll handle that situation, though._ "

Hartley's mouth parted in surprise. No way. Was this the mole? Was that seriously the mole talking on the other side of that phone? He just needed to wait and listen and see if someone used names and then they'd have it. This was what they'd been waiting for!

Red-garbed Man nodded and glanced around before lowering his voice slightly, "And you're sure my girl is looked after? She's getting the money I'm wiring through to her and no one's messing with her, right?"

The other voice was soothing when it responded, " _Of course, Plastic Man. I told you that I'd watch out for her as long as you did this._ " Hartley shook his head. The things people were willing to go to in order to help those they loved. He could tell that whomever it was on the phone was convincing this Plastic Man that his girlfriend would be looked after and treated right after the Light took over as long as Plastic Man helped pass on information about the Team. Hartley couldn't even fault Plastic Man because the villain was just trying to do the best he could for the one he loved. Hartley definitely blamed whomever it was on the other side of the phone, though. They were the kind of scum who would betray their own and manipulate someone into doing it with them. Hartley hoped the Justice League was merciless with the mole.

"Thanks man. I owe you." Plastic Man sighed out in relief.

The other voice was tired, but still pleased when it responded, " _Nah, you're doing enough as it is. I couldn't possibly ask more._ "

Plastic Man laughed, "Just as selfless as ever, Flash."

Hartley's whole world crumbled around him. He barely heard the other voice – Flash! – laugh back, " _What can I say? You could hardly expect anything less from Central City's friendly speedster. I've gotta go. The League's having a meeting. Keep up the good work, Plastic Man. I'll call in with more info when the meeting's done._ "

"Alright, stay safe man." Plastic Man responded, shutting the phone and glancing around the hallway again before setting off in the direction opposite the one Hartley was standing.

Sam's voice cut through the fog that had settled over Hartley's mind, "I'm sorry… did you just say Flash? As in Flasher? As in our hero? Our mortal enemy speedster?"

"Yeah." Hartley croaked, eyes wide and mouth practically permanently stuck open at this point.

Sam's voice sounded just as wrecked as Hartley's, "I'm not going to bother repeating most of what the others just said because it was basically just a lot of cursing and yelling out for revenge. Jesus. Who would have thought that Flash was the mole this whole time? According to Len, worse than the fact that Flasher is the mole is the fact that now Flash has informed the Light about  _us_  being a mole for the other side."

"They don't know that it's us yet." Hartley protested although the idea immediately made him shrink into himself, eyes growing more watchful as the shock passed and cold reality settled in.

"Digger says that they will know if you don't get out of there soon. You've gotten what you came for. Find Trickster and get out." Sam reported.

Hartley nodded, "Will do."

He immediately started off towards where James had wandered off. Trickster had finally started taking his medicine again so Hartley didn't have to worry about him getting really distracted and blowing the mission by wandering into the cafeteria or anything. Trickster knew to stay away from highly populated places and to keep going slowly straight until Hartley could catch up with him.

It didn't take the Pied Piper long to find his multicolored teammate, but he still wished that he'd have found him earlier. There was a man looming over Trickster's slim form. He had unruly brown hair that had been wrestled into some vestige of control and a thick brown mustache crawling across his upper lip. There were wrinkles along his forehead and under his smug brown eyes. Hartley walked up next to James before the huge man could say anything. He rested a hand on his pseudo brother's shoulder and glared at the man in front of him, "Can we help you?"

The man smirked, the expression in his mud brown eyes twisting into something darker, "You one of the new metahumans running around?"

Hartley narrowed his eyes, "We're not metahumans."

The man's expression didn't change except to maybe become a little bit more mocking, "Too bad. I thought you might have actually been able to contribute something to this organization."

"Excuse you?" Hartley asked, "We don't need some powers to be useful. I could take you down without even touching you and I don't need any  _powers_  to do it. You're just some two-bit lackey who's too stupid to realize who you're talking to, though, so I'll forgive your insolence this time."

The man straightened, expression tightening and eyes churning in anger, "Who the fu-,"

Another voice interrupted their argument, "I think the real question we should be asking is what all of you are doing here? This is the residential area. It's off-limits to everyone who doesn't live here. And yeah, West, I know that you live here and help out the scientists, but you've got different quarters because sometimes we don't like seeing scientists running around right when we come back from missions. Some of us aren't big fans of scientists." Hartley glanced over and saw Icicle Jr. standing there with a decidedly unimpressed expression on his face.

The man, West apparently, slouched back down again and leveled a sneer at Icicle Jr., "Yeah, whatever. Just make sure to get these kids out of here too."

"As long as you make sure to not come back here again." Icicle Jr. remarked, eyes frozen the same way Len's were sometimes. West scoffed and backed off, going down a side hallway that Hartley hadn't noticed before.

Icicle Jr. gestured back towards the way Hartley and James had come from, "Come on. Let's get you out of here before you're caught."

"Does this not count as getting caught?" Hartley asked cautiously.

Icicle Jr. snorted, "Not even close. The Light would probably have you and your team killed if you were caught in here. I may not be incredibly high on the food chain around here, but I'm high enough to know that you Rogues made a deal with the Light that you'd get to see Momentum once their main plan was out of the way. What if you'd run into him here? Because, news flash, he lives here now. The Light would not have been pleased if you went back on your deal. Luckily he's out on a mission right now otherwise you would have been screwed."

"Why are you helping us, then, instead of getting us in trouble? You could be just as screwed if the Light finds out that you knew we were in here and you didn't tell them." Hartley asked. It wasn't that he was ungrateful. He was just curious.

He got a shrug in return before the ice-themed teenage villain responded, "Momentum would be upset if you guys were, like, killed or something. He's stressed enough as it is."

Hartley licked his suddenly dry lips, "Does he talk about us a lot? I mean, does he mention us at all?"

Icicle Jr. gave Hartley and James an inscrutable look before going back to looking at the hallway in front of them, "At first, he barely mentioned you. If you ever did come up, he'd just get all sad and mopey. But once he realized that the Light lied to him about the reason why you guys weren't there the day they split the world, he started talking about you guys more. I think he really misses you. He's looking forward to when you guys complete your mission and are able to talk to him."

Hartley didn't have a response for that, so he just sucked in a breath and kept walking. His head was spinning from everything he'd learned in the time he'd been there. How did all of this happen? How did everything fall to pieces like this in a matter of months?

James's voice pulled Hartley out of his thoughts, "Who was that guy in the hallway?" Hartley remembered the brown haired, brown eyed jerk with the mustache and curled his lip in derisively.

Icicle Jr.'s rolled eyes indicated that he didn't think much of the man either, "That's one of Luthor's goons. No one's really sure what he does. We all know it's something to do with the scientists, but beyond that we've got nothing. His name's Rudolph West. He's a real piece of work. Word is he  _hates_  metahumans – something about his brother or his kid or whatever ending up as one or something like that. I don't know. He always leers at us metas; it feels like he's contemplating ways to kill us when he looks at us like that. And he's always disappointed when he finds out someone's not a meta because he can't imagine creative ways of killing you. The man's a psychopath. Don't worry, though. I've made sure that Momentum and West don't cross paths. I don't want Wally anywhere near that creep."

There went all of Hartley's air again. He's had too many sucker punches that night. Icicle Jr. might not have made the connection, but Hartley did. How many Wests were there running around? Well, honestly, there were probably a lot. How many Wests with Wally's eye shape and Wally's unruly hair were running around? How many Wests with a hatred for metahumans because one of their family members became one were running around? How many were with a group of scientists? Wally had never told the Rogues his parents' names. He'd probably never considered there to be a need to because he thought they were well and truly out of his life. But despite not knowing Wally's father's name, Hartley somehow  _knew_  that the Rudolph West he just faced in the hallway was his pseudo brother's father. And that, honestly, was the last thing Wally needed.

Shaking his head to clear it of the thoughts, Hartley realized that Icicle Jr. had just started talking, "Hey, so… you've got a metahuman on your team, right? That Weather Wizard guy?"

"Yeah…" Hartley said, not at all sure how this conversation was going.

Icicle Jr. scraped his foot along the ground. Hartley just noticed that it was bare and that the blue villain was wearing pajamas. He felt a sudden flash of guilt for making Icicle Jr. deal with all of this while he was supposed to be sleeping. Icicle Jr. spoke up finally, "And he's treated the same as the rest of you?"

Hartley tilted his head, "You mean the same rules that apply to the rest of the group apply to him? Yeah, sure. The usual rules about how to conduct business apply: make sure that he tells someone when he's going on a heist, don't run off a competitor until Captain Cold's approved it, make sure someone's available to get to your location when you're running a job so you've got backup. The house rules all apply: he gets to request a certain hour of the TV for his favorite TV show once a week, he has to do at least one cleaning activity a week, he has to be not drunk during the days so he can pick us kids up from school if he needs to without getting us thrown into child protective services. The same rules apply to all of us all the time."

"Even the kids? They're still treated the same?" Icicle Jr. asked. It didn't seem like he was asking out of curiosity. There was something dark and so immensely, dangerously, brokenly sad in his eyes. It was like looking at chunks of ice that were so thick that you couldn't see the other side, but you could see the breaks and fractures inside it.

Choosing his words carefully, Hartley said, "Yeah, they're still treated the same. I mean, the adults will look out for us more and they'll still expect us to do our homework and get to bed at a reasonable time and all that, but they still respect our opinions and all that."

Icicle Jr. hummed in consideration, but didn't say anything in response. By that point, the trio had reached the doors. Holding up his silence, Icicle Jr. opened the door and nodded for the Rogues to leave. He'd shut the door behind them before Hartley even got a chance to say goodbye.

It didn't take long after that before they got to a large standing mirror. It wasn't the one they'd used to get into the residential area, so it took Sam a little while to find it, but the two younger Rogues were still back in the nearby safehouse soon after being escorted out of the residential area.

Hartley immediately plopped into the biggest, fluffiest couch in the living room, gratefully accepting the mug of hot chocolate that Mick extended to him. He snuggled into the chair and delicately sipped the hot drink, closing his eyes slightly as he let everything but the comfort he was feeling right at that moment go. After that moment passed, Hartley said, "You guys made the same connection about Rudolph West as I did, right?"

"If you mean that the…  _monster_  is Wally's dad, then yeah, we made that connection and then got proof of it too." Mark said, something dark and  _dangerous_  written across his face. He nodded his head towards the open computer that showed a stoic family picture of Rudolph and Wally West along with a stern looking redhead who must have been Wally's mother. None of them were smiling.

"As unfortunate as it is that Wally is in the same building as that man, there are other things we have to focus on. Wally has been kept away from his father so far. We can expect that the Light will keep it that way for at least a little bit longer." Len said, frowning uneasily.

"Ya mean the fact that Flasher is the bloody mole." Digger said, eyes alight with anger.

Sam shook his head, "Who would have even guessed? I mean, it didn't seem like any of the little leaguers were even considering that it might be a League member. And the Flash… He's our city's hero! I expected better out of him. I guess I shouldn't bother expecting things like that anymore."

Hartley suggested a little hopelessly, "There could have been a mistake?"

"He gave a member of the Light information that wouldn't have been known by anyone who didn't have direct contact with the little leaguers. He said that Plastic Man would be able to handle it and he asked him to find us. What else are we supposed to think?" Len said. The way his eyebrows curved inwards gently and the way his expression wasn't as severe as it normally would be in a situation like this told Hartley that he was trying to be gentle about this. The Flash was  _their_  hero and the idea that he wasn't as heroic as they'd been lead to believe... It should have made them happy to hear that he was actually on the villain side – he was another potential ally – but it was so wrong to think of Flash as anything but the happy go lucky hero of Central City that the idea repulsed them.

Len closed his eyes and sighed, "I guess there's nothing for it. We'll have to tell Robin that we found the mole."


	29. Team Up

WWWWWW

"Dude, no way!" Wally cheered, glancing over his mission objectives and plan.

"Hm?" Cameron hummed questioningly, methodically opening the package with his mission details where Wally had just torn his open and started scanning it.

Wally grinned at him, "We're on the same mission! We've  _never_  run a mission together before. This is going to be  _epic_. It'll just be you, me, Cheshire, and Sportsmaster. I mean, when the two of them are on a mission, it's always a little bit awkward, but now I'll have someone to talk to and not sit in awkward silence with!"

Cameron started grinning too, "Yes!" He pumped his fist in the air and then went for a high five which Wally immediately returned. He laughed, "I guess they realized that the three of you weren't going to be enough and they decided to bring in the big guns."

"Am I not considered the big guns?" Cheshire purred in Cameron's ear. The teen jumped and stared at Cheshire with wide, wild eyes. A bit of frost had settled over his chair when he'd jumped up.

Wally laughed at his friend, "Ha! She gets you every time! You think you'd be used to it by now. Cheshire's totally silent and awesome so she's always going to sneak up behind you and do that."

"She doesn't do it to you." Cameron muttered mutinously.

Wally grinned proudly, "She's trained me stop making comments that she can tease me about."

"You're both stupid." Cheshire said. Wally had the strongest feeling that she was rolling her eyes under that mask. She said, "Go grab something in the cafeteria while you read. We won't be leaving for a little bit because we have to wait for Sportsmaster to get back from the mission he's on."

The teens nodded and started heading towards the cafeteria, mission outlines tucked under their arms. Wally let Cameron lead, not wanting to muster up the mental energy to try to remember the way to the cafeteria from the room they'd been in. Cameron knew the place way better than Wally did and he didn't have constant missions/training/lab tests to worry about. Honestly, Wally was starting to get worn down. There was only so much he could take. While it was true that speedsters were the masters of cat naps, cat naps didn't give you as much sleep as you're supposed to get. And Wally was starting to feel that. And it didn't feel good.

He hadn't even noticed that they'd reached the cafeteria until Cameron was steering him to a table, murmuring that he'd be back with their plates in a few minutes. Wally waved his thanks and sent him a small smile and Cameron smiled back. It didn't quite reach his eyes, but Cameron's smiles really hadn't been reaching his eyes lately. There was definitely something bothering his friend, but Wally couldn't figure out what it was. In the brief moments that the two could hang out together, Cameron always deflected the questions and concerns, citing the fact that he didn't want to talk about serious things in the small moments they had together.

A voice suddenly came from the slightly above and in front of Wally, "Hey man, mind if I sit here?"

Wally glanced up and smiled, "Yeah, of course! It's good to see you Plastic Man. It's been too long."

"True that. You're never around anymore. And of course, we're getting closer to the Big Day or whatever so everyone's been running around too. Even I've been busy and I'm brand new here." Patrick responded, easily sliding into the seat across from Wally.

Wally nodded in agreement, "Yeah, definitely. How are you settling in, by the way?"

"I'd be doing better if I could hang out with literally the only person I know a little more. Well, Icicle and I have been hanging out a bit because we at least know each other, but other than that… I wish I could go home on the weekends and see my gal at the very least. First they said we couldn't leave anymore and then it was no more letters and now today they say there's no more calling even. Who knows when I'll be able to talk to her again?" Patrick sighed, staring wistfully at his glass of milk.

Wally smiled sympathetically, "Sorry man, that really sucks."

"Yeah," Patrick said, expression snapping into something more calculating and concerned, "You know what else sucks? All that time you're spending in the lab. Do you even know what they're testing or what they want?"

Rolling his eyes, Wally sighed, "It's fine! I don't know why everyone's getting so upset about it. I'm managing everything fine. I might not get to see people that often, but that'll change once the Big Day happens and everything calms down a little bit. Besides, they said the tests are almost over."

"But you don't know what the tests are for." Patrick prompted.

Wally frowned, " _No_ , I don't know what the tests are for. And I don't need to know! They're not hurting me and that's all that matters."

"How do you  _know_  that they're not hurting you?" Patrick asked, a frown forming on his own face.

"Because I'm not in pain! I would think that was rather obvious!" Wally took a deep, calming breath, "Look, I get it. You're worried about me and you're trying to help. The thing is: I. Don't. Need. Help. I'm not some invalid who can't solve my own problems. I've got this. You don't need to worry." He finished with a satisfied nod.

"I know you can take of yourself, but you don't know what they're doing! They're -," Patrick began.

Wally interrupted him before he could go any further, "I don't want to talk about this! This is one of the few moments we get to spend with each other and I don't want it to be spent talking about something that we're obviously going to fight over. Okay? No more talk about labs or testing or whatever. Just… no more."

There was a pained expression on Patrick's face, like he wasn't sure if continuing the conversation or not continuing it would hurt Wally more. It hurt Wally to put that expression on his friend's face, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to get in a fight with someone he cared about. He was so, so sick of losing the people he cared about and he wouldn't let some argument about lab work be what made Patrick leave him. He wouldn't.

Icicle Jr. came back to a silent table as Patrick and Wally sat silently, Patrick mulishly eating his food. Wally straightened up when Cameron set his plates down in front of him and thanked him before eating his food quickly and methodically. Cameron raised a white eyebrow, "Well, this is a lovely conversation. Come on, let's figure out what this mission is going to be about." Cameron nudged the mission details packet and Wally's embarrassingly Flash themed Heist Book against Wally's arm to get him to pick it up.

Flashing (no pun intended) Cameron a grateful smile, Wally started transferring relevant notes into his Heist Book, carefully writing out his parts of the mission. Despite how long he'd been doing missions with the Light now, it was still a foreign concept to him to only write his part of the mission in the book. He still didn't get the idea of not knowing what his partners were supposed to be doing the entire time. Luckily, Cheshire always gave him her mission details (after taping paper over the parts that he wasn't supposed to read) to transfer into his book beforehand. She understood how much it irritated him to not have his teammate's movements. Extra luckily, it seemed like Cameron understood that too because he passed Wally his outline after reading it. Wally grinned at him and Cameron just rolled his eyes with a smile.

It didn't really seem like all that bad of a mission, honestly. It definitely didn't seem like a mission that was important enough to send all four of them on together. From what Wally was seeing with his and Cameron's parts, this was just a grab and run. All they had to do was get into the archive, grab the papers they were looking for, and get out. Unfortunately, they'd be taking a car and then a boat. For some reason, this archive was out in the middle of that same swamp-like land again. Wally wasn't sure what it was about that area, but it apparently attracted villains. He just hoped that there wasn't going to be any near drowning this time. That had not been pleasant.

Breaking the silence that had settled over the trio, Patrick inquired, "So, who all gets to know what you do on missions? Like, it is only you guys and the heads?"

Wally shook his head, but it was Cameron who answered, "No. The heads and all of their seconds and thirds know about it. Basically, anyone higher than you in clearance knows about your mission."

"Whoa, halt. Does that mean that you guys know about my missions?" Patrick asked, tilted his head to the side.

"Yep." Wally grinned, glad that the tension was gone, "We even know about that spectacular fall down the stairs you managed."

Patrick groaned and covered his face with his hands, "So I just basically have to worry about literally everyone else knowing about my screw-ups while you guys only have to worry about a couple of way, way high up people knowing about yours."

"The Rogues too." Cameron said before explaining further, "The job of the Rogues is to make sure that the team of sidekicks doesn't come in and mess up missions, so they learn about all the missions."

Patrick tilted his head to the side again, "Does that mean that the Rogues live on base?"

"No, they're off in one of their safe houses." Wally said, mood drooping a little at the thought. It wouldn't be that long, though, until they could see each other and maybe clear some things up between them. Hopefully.

"Hm… I wonder if they have the same constraints as we do. You know, no letters, no emails, no phone calls, nothing. Are they under as tight of security as us?" Patrick probed.

Wally narrowed his eyes at him, "I don't think they are. Why suddenly so curious?"

"Why so curious?" Patrick asked incredulously, "Because it's not fair that they get to talk to their girls and I won't be able to talk to mine for who knows how long!"

Suspicion cleared, Wally laughed, "Don't worry, none of the Rogues have girls to talk to anyways." Cameron snorted off to the side.

Patrick laughed too, and opened his mouth to say something. Cheshire's voice cut him off before he could begin, "I hope you two are done eating and reading because we're leaving now."

Wally rolled his eyes, "Yes, mother." Cheshire cuffed him on the back of the head. He glared at her half-heartedly as Cameron nudged his ribs and stuck his tongue out at the speedster. Wally just stuck his tongue out back. Half turning as he walked, Wally called out, "See you Plastic Man!"

"Yeah, see you!" Patrick called back, but there was something sad in his eyes that made the goodbye seem a lot more serious than it should have been.

Wally didn't get a chance to consider that, as he was immediately being led out towards the veritable car park they had underground with any number of vehicle brands and models. Cheshire stopped beside a sleek silver car and said, "Get in. We're taking this one."

"We're not taking that one. We're taking this one." Sportsmaster called out from where he was standing next to a muted blue minivan.

Cheshire's hand twitched, "I am  _not_  getting in a minivan with you. We're taking  _this_  car."

Sportsmaster didn't move, "I don't think I gave you an option. We. Are. Taking. This. Car." His eyes glittered in the slits of his mask.

Cheshire didn't move either, "I didn't think you were the minivan type. Somehow I can't see you as being anything other than a completely useless, deadbeat father." Cameron and Wally's eyebrows raised and they crept closer to each other where they stood relatively in the middle of their feuding adult partners.

"Oh really?" Sportsmaster asked before suddenly turning on Wally and Cameron, "Do you think I'd be a 'completely useless, deadbeat father'?"

"Uh…" Wally started.

Cheshire snapped, "Don't bring them into this. It has nothing to do with them. Besides, they'd agree with me, right?"

"Uh…" Cameron responded.

A smooth voice called out from behind all of them, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, "Is there a problem here?" Wally's eyebrows rose even further. That was Ra's al Ghul. Was this mission important enough that he felt it necessary to show up himself? Or was it something about Cheshire and Sportsmaster? Did he somehow foresee this happening? Although Wally didn't know Ra's al Ghul all that well, he wouldn't be all that surprised if the man ended up having precognition or something like that. Wally had only encountered the man a couple of times and barely any of those times had been just the two of them alone, but Wally had been deeply unsettled by the leader of the League of Assassins. There was something about the interest the man gave him, the way that he watched Wally as if he was constantly assessing his worth grated on Wally's nerves and made him feel like someone was running a finger up his spine. The man gave him the creeps.

Both Cheshire and Sportsmaster straightened at his voice, though. They simultaneously answered, "No sir."

Ra's al Ghul stopped next to an off-white SUV and ran a wrinkled hand over the exterior of the car, "I think I quite like this car. Why don't you take this one for your mission?"

Sportsmaster started moving towards the car immediately and Cheshire practically sprinted forward to beat him. Cameron and Wally watched in shock at Cheshire literally pushed Sportsmaster out of the way in order to get in the driver's seat. Sportsmaster sulked all the way over to shotgun, muttering to himself as he went. Cameron started walking towards the car, easily sliding into one of the back seats (the one farthest from Ra's al Ghul). Glaring at his friend, Wally cautiously crept closer to the side of the car he needed to get into – the same side that Ra's al Ghul was leaning against, vaguely creepy smile in place.

Wally had just reached the door and was about to get in when Ra's al Ghul took a step closer to him, "All of our preparations will soon be completed. Even though you will get to see the Rogues again, I do hope that you consider staying with the Light. Perhaps you could even spend some time with the League of Assassins. I am sure there is much we could teach you."

Wally moved closer to the door, "I'm sure you can teach me a lot, but I'm not really the assassin kind. Killing really isn't my thing. I'm just a simple thief."

There was an undecipherable look in Ra's al Ghul's eyes, "A thief, perhaps, but simple, certainly not." He paused before continuing, "Good luck on your mission." And then he was gone, melting into the shadows and disappearing from sight.

Wally slid into the car with a relieved exhale. He shook his head at the rest of the car's occupants, "I don't know how you guys work for him. He creeps the living daylights out of me."

"You interest him." Cheshire answered, pulling out of the parking stall and starting the trek towards the boat that would take them through the swamp to the archive. This was going to be a  _long_ drive. Especially once Sportsmaster and Cheshire started arguing. And especially once Icicle Jr. started complaining about how hot it was. Wally sighed and pressed his forehead against the window. This was going to be a long,  _long_ ,  _loooong_  drive.


	30. Fixing Misunderstandings

PPPPPP

Patrick crept cautiously through the hallways. It wasn't that he was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. He just didn't have any particular reason to be where he was. He could feel everything coming to some sort of climax around him and he knew there were thousands of ways it could go. Patrick had a plan to make it go the way he wanted it to, but there were certain things that were out of his control that he needed to happen. One of those things was the reason he was currently going through the command portion of HQ.

Muttering to himself, Patrick tapped his fingers restlessly on his leg, "Come on, come on, come on. They have to be around here somewhere. I mean, it would make sense that they'd show up here, right? So they could be deployed if they needed to. That makes sense. Either that or I'm just wasting time and potentially getting myself in trouble. Then again, my ma always said that I had the luck of the devil. They might just be here because I need them." He snorted quietly, "Yeah, sure. Like that'll happen."

"You lost?" A gruff voice called out.

Blinking in surprise, Patrick looked over to the figure that had appeared from the west wing. He was tall and solidly built with bushy brown hair and bushy brown eyebrows and a bushy brown mustache. Patrick awarded him a bright smile, "Nope! I'm looking for some people actually. You know who the Rogues are?"

The strange man was entirely unaffected by the smile, "They the ones with the brat that looks like a rainbow threw up on him?"

Patrick frowned thoughtfully, "That's a surprisingly accurate description, but yeah, that's them! They around here at the moment?"

"I'm pretty sure I saw them a couple halls over." The man grunted, already turning to lead the way.

Raising an eyebrow at the rudeness, Patrick caught up to him and tried making conversation, "I haven't seen you around before. You a new guy like me?"

"I'm not like you. I'm with the scientists." There was a pause before the man continued, "You a metahuman?"

Blinking at the random change in conversation, Patrick nodded, "Yeah, you?"

The brown haired man sneered, "Definitely not."

Patrick decided that he didn't really want to continue that conversation and chose to spend the rest of the trip in silence. This man seriously gave him the creeps. There was something off about the look in his eyes, in the set of his jaw, and the twist of his lips. It wasn't anything as simple as creepiness that twisted Patrick's gut and made his skin crawl next to this man. There was something that screamed madness in this tall, obviously strong man. His eyes lit like black flames of tainted death and his lips twisted like a deadly labyrinth. The man might not be a metahuman, but he was dangerous and Patrick wanted away from the creep. That was why he only offered a quick, "Thanks man" before darting away into the room the man had pointed out as being occupied by the Rogues.

He spared one last look over his shoulder at the still glowering, still  _staring_  man and that was his mistake. By the time he'd turned back around, there was a cold gun, a heat gun, a mirror gun, a boomerang, a snot (?) gun, and a flute (?) aimed at him. He blinked beneath his large white glasses, "Well then. Quite a first meeting, huh?"

"Who are you?" The one he recognized as Captain Cold asked mildly. Apparently his lack of emotion had not been exaggerated. The rest of the team was bristling, weapons clenched and eyes narrowed, but Captain Cold was lounging against the seat he'd been sitting against, one arm draped idly over the back of the chair and the other holding his gun like it was a beer instead of a deadly weapon that inspires fear across the country.

Patrick made a little bow, "Plastic Man's the name. Stealing's the game." He flashed them a bright smile, but refrained from making finger guns this time. He had the strangest idea that they would feel threatened by his finger guns and shoot him. Hopefully they weren't that trigger happy.

"And that gives you permission to interrupt us,  _why_ , exactly?" Cold asked in that same expressionless voice and relaxed countenance.

Plastic Man leaned against the door frame behind him, closing the door most of the way before answering calmly (despite the fact that his heart was beating as hard as if he had just raced a speedster), "Because that was half a lie. Stealing used to be the game, but that's not really what I'm up for anymore. And I don't think that I'm the only one telling the lies here." He hoped he was right about this. He really,  _really_  hoped he was right about this.

Captain Cold's expression didn't change and his hands didn't twitch. He didn't even move. But Patrick could tell that he'd gotten to the leader of the Rogues because the man's voice was colder than the ice he was themed after when he said, "Don't you dare accuse us of lying."

"Even if it's true?" Patrick asked, shrinking back a little bit. He didn't want to seem weak in front of this man, but he couldn't help it. Whatever villains out there that made fun of the 'weak-willed' and 'wimpy' and 'as scary as a sad little kitten' Rogues hadn't insulted their integrity and seen Captain Cold's reaction.

"What do you think we're lying about?" Heatwave grunted. Where Captain Cold was terrifying, Heatwave was worrying. His voice wasn't emotionless like Cold's; it was distracted and not focused in on the conversation. It was completely detached and still sharper than a surgeon's needle. It didn't sound entirely sane.

Patrick pushed the door a little more closed with his heel, leaning forward carefully and lowering his voice, "I think you're lying about how villainous you are too. I think you're doing something that isn't quite as evil as you're supposed to be."

"Stop talking in riddles, ya wanker! Just answer the question!" Captain Boomerang growled. He didn't give off such a presence as the other two Rogues, but he definitely gave off signs of danger. Lethality curled around taught muscles and the easy grace with which he held his weapon. Death slept in his broken eyes.

"Alright, alright!" Patrick held his hands up before saying with as much courage as he could muster, "I know you're informing Robin of missions that the Light's running."

The younger members of the Rogues gave off full body twitches at his announcements, but the rest of the Rogues gave off less of a reaction. Captain Cold didn't even move. Mirror Master spoke next, "And we know that you're informing the Light of the information about the team that you're getting from the Flash."

Honestly, the only reaction Patrick could give to that one was to stared blankly at them with a dumbfounded expression because  _what_? Did they just say what he thought they just said? After a few moments of mentally floundering, Patrick decided it was better to just ask, "I'm sorry,  _what_?"

"Don't think you can trick us. We heard your conversation with Flash. We know what you're doing." Weather Wizard sneered at him, satisfied smirk playing across his face. Patrick could only stare.

Pied Piper added easily, "We get it, though. We get that he's secured the safety of your girlfriend and you just want to keep her safe. You don't have to do that, though. We can protect her if you want."

Patrick finally got ahold of himself and started waving his hands around furiously. In his panic, his control started to slip and his arms went all wobbly, stretching and tumbling over themselves in the air. Breathing deeply and calming himself like the monks taught him to (and he was  _still_  trying to thank that monk that saved his lives in so many ways), Patrick got his arms back under control and said as calmly as he could manage, "I am not informing the Light on  _anything_  and I'm not getting information from  _Flash_. Whatever proof you think you have, you're mistaken."

"And that phone call where Flash told you to try to find the people who were informing to Robin and take care of the situation because the Light didn't know yet had nothing to do with you getting information from Flash and giving it to the Light?" Weather Wizard asked incredulously, eyebrows raised.

Patrick sighed, "Listen, this is just a misunderstanding, I swear. Can you listen to me explain the situation? Please?"

There was terse silence as the Rogues glanced to their leader for an answer. Patrick was almost jealous of the ease with which they trusted this situation to him. He'd never been in a group that was as assured with its leadership as this one was. But he wasn't a villain anymore and he wouldn't have to worry about dysfunctional rings anymore. Eventually, Captain Cold answered, "Fine."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Patrick tried to summarize what was going on as quickly as possible, "Okay, so I met Wally in a criminal bar a while back. We talked and I gave him my card. I was a thief, but then my ring left me during a botched job. I barely got away, but I ended up with superpowers out of the whole thing. I decided that my better option in life was to become a hero. I talk to Wally about that too – he was trying to rescue you guys from the Justice League at the time, I believe. I mean, I didn't know he was a Rogue at the time. I just thought that he was some random criminal who was pretty legit. We kept talking and all that jazz and he gave me the Flash's number to try to get my hero career kicked off. When I contacted Flash, he convinced me to try to convince Wally to leave the Light. I couldn't do that obviously, so I told Flash that I'd go under and try to not only get info from the Light, but also protect Wally and get him out of there. Flash was trying to make sure that I wouldn't get in your guys' way when he said that I should deal with the situation of Robin's moles. I'm not actually working for the Light. If my plan goes according to plan, I'll be out of here by tonight."

"Piper?" Cold asked, not moving his eyes or his gun off of Patrick.

Pied Piper's eyebrows were raised, "He's telling the truth. He didn't lie even once."

"Then he's a friend of Wally! Yay!" Trickster cried out, shooting his snot (?) gun in the air in celebration. The rest of the Rogues ducked and rolled out to the side as the snot (?) splattered the ground around where Trickster was standing. Patrick quickly realized that there was not, in fact, snot in the nose shaped gun, but instead highly concentrated acid. At least, he assumed it was highly concentrated based on how quickly it was eating through the floor. Trickster was beaming proudly at Patrick, "Wally helped me make that  _extra_  snotty!"

"Did he really?" Patrick asked faintly. At first he'd thought that maybe this team would be a bad influence on Wally, but he was starting to think that maybe it was the opposite.

"You said you had a plan. Was that why you sought us out?" Captain Cold asked, completely serious and unaffected despite the globules of acid he was easily skirting around. It spoke of long practice and that completely horrified Patrick.

Patrick shook his head to get himself focused, "I need you to tell Robin about Wally's current mission."

"The one in the archive?" Captain Cold asked.

"That's the one! For this to work, I need the little leaguers there. And you can't go there, right? Because Wally will see you or something like that? I don't know if that's accurate. There's just a rumor flying around that you guys will get in trouble if you interact with him before the big wigs say you can." Patrick said, counting his lucky stars that they were willing to at least listen to him.

Captain Cold didn't address the rumor at all, focusing on the first part, "Why do they need to be there? You'll excuse me if I'm not completely willing to trust a man I've never met who knows a lot more than he should."

"Totally understandable." Patrick said, nodding, "I can't tell you everything because, you'll excuse me, I can't really trust villains now that I'm a hero." His tone made it sound joking, but the flat set of his mouth told Cold that he wasn't messing around. Patrick was a hero now and he wanted to make sure that was very clear. Cold nodded and Patrick continued, "I need the little leaguers to capture Wally in this mission."

Mirror Master snorted, "They're not going to be able to catch him. Not only is he a slippery little bugger, but he's got Cheshire, Sportsmaster, and Icicle Jr. all with him at the same time. They might be good, but they're not that good."

"Then convince them to get the big league there or something to deal with them if they really need it. I don't think they'll need it, though." Patrick responded, though the last sentence was mainly to himself.

"Why do you think they won't need backup?" Pied Piper asked sharply.

Patrick bit his lip and said, "Wally won't be all that much of a threat."

"What do ya mean by that? What're they gonna do ta him?" Captain Boomerang asked, hand tightening around the boomerang clenched there.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry, but I don't trust you enough for that. I'm just telling you that the little leaguers need to be there to capture Wally. He won't be able to escape. If they get Wally, then everything just became that much easier for them. You know that Wally's been one of the most successful Light agents, at least for his age and his time as a career criminal. And that way, Wally's out of the way and free of the Light." Patrick responded confidently. He's thought this part through at least.

Weather Wizard popped his knuckles and sighed, "Too bad we can't help you there."

"What do you mean?" Patrick asked exasperatedly.

Captain Cold answered, "You were right when you said that we weren't allowed to interact with Wally prematurely. So we're stuck here unless the little leaguers are causing trouble somewhere other than where Wally is. They don't want to risk us accidently running into him. And you know that all communications with the outside world are banned right now."

"Aside from all that," Pied Piper added helpfully, "Robin right now thinks that the Flash is the mole and is probably confronting him about that right now which means that the JL will probably be too worried over that whole issue to try to help the little leaguers take out the Light mission."

Patrick groaned and threw his head against the door behind him, "Are you  _serious_? You already  _told_  him? Why are you making my life so difficult?"

"It's not like we knew that Flasher wasn't the actual mole." Weather Wizard throws back defensively. There's a note of relief in there, though, that makes Patrick stop slamming his head against the door and instead glance at the gathered group of villains. A lot of them have shoulders that have slumped with the release of some burden and tense lines have slipped away from the faces of the rest. He realizes with a start that the idea of Flash being a villain had genuinely distressed the Rogues and the knowledge that they were wrong about it has actually made them  _happy_. Patrick was totally telling the Flash this when he got out of this whole predicament. The happy go lucky speedster would be  _ecstatic_  when he found out.

"Okay, okay. We can deal with that later. I really need the Team to be there to get Wally, though. This is my only chance to get him out of here. He's going to fight it, of course, but it's the best I can do." Patrick said, starting to pace. He hardly noticed that the Rogues still had their weapons loosely pointed in his direction. It wasn't important at the moment. He narrowed his eyes at the floor, "Okay. How can we legitimately get you guys out of here and in contact with the Team?"

Pied Piper rolled his eyes, "It's obvious, isn't it? The only way we can leave is if the Team gets in the way of a Light mission. We forge a mission dossier for some of the newer members who don't know better and we'll get called in when the little leaguers show up and then we nab Robin for a bit, give him our message, and then get out of there. Simple."

Patrick gaped at him, "That's genius!"

Pied Piper's expression was distinctly unimpressed, "That's common sense."

"Piper, you and Trickster get working on forging those dossiers. Make the mission so it'll attract the Team as quickly as possible and make sure you get new members who would actually call us in when they needed us. Got it? Good. You have half an hour. The rest of you: get ready to be deployed. You. With me." Captain Cold honest to goodness crooked at finger at Patrick and started walking out of the room, obviously expecting to be followed. Patrick was actually kind of impressed.

Once they were in the room across the hallway, though, Patrick was less impressed. Captain Cold had somehow managed to end up behind him and was shutting the door before Patrick could even put up a token protest. Laughing slightly, Patrick crept a few steps backwards, "What's up Captain Cold, my man?"

There was no bright, human light in Captain Cold's eyes through his goggles. The only thing Patrick could see through those thick goggles was a nationally recognized supervillain who was notorious for the number of life sentences he'd managed to rack up over the years. The only thing he could see through those thick goggles was danger and he had the sudden feeling that he'd bitten off more than he could chew this time. Cold didn't make a move towards him, though. He just stared at Patrick for a long, silent, tense,  _terrifying_  moment. Patrick didn't breathe. Finally, Captain Cold said slowly, in his usual emotionless drawl, "If you've lied to us, or tricked us in any way, I will kill you. If you hurt Wally, indirectly or otherwise, I will kill you. If you do anything that I get even mildly irritated at, I will kill you. Do you understand?"

Patrick was pretty sure that there wasn't a single thing in this world colder than Captain Cold's voice when he was threatening someone. He was also pretty sure that this was the scariest thing he had ever experienced in his life. Horror movies wouldn't ever scare him again, not after this. It took Patrick a moment to find his voice, but once he had, he croaked, "I understand completely."

"Good." Captain Cold said before turning around and opening the door, heading out towards the room across the hall where the rest of his team was.

Patrick took the moment alone to slide to the floor and catch his breath a little bit.  _That_  was why he'd only been a normal criminal. It wasn't because he didn't have any power – neither did a lot of supervillain – it was that he wasn't at that level. The true supervillains of the world had something that no one else would be able to touch. The true supervillains were always just off enough to creep under your skin and settle there like a constant feeling of cotton balls getting caught on a hangnail. Patrick realized with a start that Wally could turn into that. The Rogues weren't bad people. They were rather neutral people who did bad things. But that didn't mean that they weren't all supervillains. They stole things for  _fun_. They killed people for  _revenge_. Just because they were better than the Light didn't mean they were good. And Wally was going to end up just like them. He was going to become a supervillain who was just off enough to creep under your skin.

Sighing and rubbing a world-weary hand over his face, Patrick decided that it wasn't his place to judge Wally's life decisions. Wally had become a part of Patrick's life with just a few conversations and a text here or there, but he was still a big part of Patrick's life and if Wally was happy wherever he ended up, then Patrick was going to be happy for him, even if Wally's family disturbed him a little bit.

Shaking his head and smiling slightly, Patrick stood up. Everyone else was already working hard to get his plan in motion. He better get going on the rest.

RRRRRR

Dick tapped his foot against the leg of the stool he was sitting on. His fingers were tapping out a tandem tune against the table top. He was completely content to just do that repeatedly, but Alfred was giving him his patented 'Alfred Is Not Amused and That Means That You Should Stop Immediately' look and Dick was not going to risk Alfred's wrath (which generally consisted of him not cleaning your room and making tart underhanded comments and cooking your least favorite meals until he felt you were suitably punished).

He felt justified for being so nervous, though. Bruce had given him free reign with the whole entire Momentum situation for as long as Dick felt like he could handle it and Dick had been determined to handle it, but he couldn't anymore. The Rogues had just told him that  _Flash_  was the mole. They even played a clip that they had recorded of the Flash basically confessing to it. Flash had reported the fact that he had a mole in the Light.  _Barry_  had reported on  _him_  specifically to the Light. If it weren't for the fact that Robin could tell that they weren't lying, he'd have cut off all contact with them for trying to split the Justice League apart. But their broken expressions and the stench of beer surrounding the older members and the fact that Heatwave was burning warehouses nearby and the missing Pied Piper and Trickster all pointed towards the fact that they weren't lying. They were just as shattered about this as Robin was.

And now Dick had to tell Bruce about it. Well, he had to tell him once he woke up. Dick had come back from meeting the Rogues and had told Batman that they needed to talk in the morning. Bruce had accepted that without a word, simply sending Dick off to bed like usual. Dick hadn't slept a wink, but apparently Bruce was not having the same issue since he was still asleep. Unconsciously, Dick started tapping the table and the stool leg again.

Alfred sighed and gently pushed a muffin into Dick's hands, "Eat, young master."

Although he was always reluctant to refuse Alfred's foods, Dick tucked his legs up under him and balanced on the stool and mumbled, "I'm not really hungry."

"You should eat anyways to keep your strength up." Alfred said, turning to the crockpot he was filling in preparation for dinner that night. Dick hunched in his chair and started obediently picking at his muffin, forcing small bites and trying to resist the urge to start tapping nervously again. Alfred's kind voice filtered through the air again, "I haven't seen you texting as much as you used to."

Dick's shoulders dropped, "That's part of what I need to tell Bruce this morning."

"Is that young man you were texting alright?" Alfred asked, already mother henning John without ever having met him, without knowing a thing about him beyond the times Dick had talked and talked and talked about him.

Dick's shoulders dropped even further, "Not really. And I don't know how to help. I don't know if I  _can_  help."

Comfortable silence filled the kitchen after that confession. Dick melted under the familiarity of a warm kitchen filled with the scent of dinner, a still steaming muffin in his hand and blanketing silence wrapping around him. He'd loved the chaos of the circus and he never would have willingly given up that endless hustle and bustle, but he thought, maybe, maybe this was just as good and maybe, maybe this was where he'd belonged the whole time. He'd always be a circus brat and he'd always be a flying Grayson at heart, but he figured that he could be this too. He could be the circus brat, the flying Grayson, the billionaire's ward, the mathlete, the crime-fighter, the hero all at once.

Alfred's voice startled him out of reverie, "I'm proud of you, Master Dick. It takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice to do something by yourself, but sometimes it's even harder to ask someone else for help. I'm afraid that's a trait that Master Bruce has yet to figure out."

Dick laughed slightly, "Thanks Alfred, that means a lot."

"Of course, Master Dick." Alfred responded evenly before saying, "Good morning, Master Bruce." Alfred hadn't even turned around. Dick sometimes wondered if Bruce had the super ninja skills first and Alfred picked them up or if it was the other way around. Because Dick could totally see Alfred as a former ninja.

"Good morning Alfred, Dick." Bruce said, settling down at the counter next to Dick and grabbing one of the other piping hot muffins. The three sat in comfortable silence for a long moment. Bruce was dressed in a white t-shirt and sweatpants. It was obvious that he wasn't planning on going out today as Bruce Wayne. His hair was still mussed from sleep and his feet were bare. This was the Bruce Wayne that had won Dick over and shown him that he could have more than one father in a lifetime. Bruce caught him looking and smiled comfortingly, "Did you have something you wanted to tell me, Dick?"

Dick sighed and closed his eyes. This was it. Letting out another breath, he started talking, "You know how I started texting that guy a while back?"

"Mhm. John, right?" Bruce asked when Dick didn't continue.

"Yeah, John. His name isn't actually John though. His name's Wally and he's-," Dick started.

He was cut off when Bruce's eyes widened and he said sharply, "Momentum."

"How did you know?" Dick asked, his own eyes widening dramatically.

Bruce's fingers twitched slightly, "Wally – Wallace Rudolph West – is Barry Allen's nephew and we discovered his identity when Green Arrow managed to get Momentum's mask off when he was breaking the rest of the Rogues out of our prison."

Dick spluttered slightly, "He's Barry's  _nephew_? And now he's one of Barry's  _supervillains_?"

Bruce sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, clearly gathering himself, "I guess that's not all you wanted to tell me."

Dick winced slightly, "Not quite. He's joined the Light. He did it originally because the Light manipulated him into thinking that the Rogues didn't want him anymore, but he also wanted to be with the Light so he could be Roy's informant."

Mouth parting just the slightest in surprise, Bruce shook his head, "How did I miss all this? So Momentum is the informant Red Arrow's been using to get us information. Anything else?"

"I'm just starting," Dick admitted with an apologetic smile. Bruce sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, but waved for him to continue anyways, "Okay, so Wally is purposefully informing Red Arrow of only the little things that aren't all that important to the Light overall. There are some missions that are being done just to distract the League and those are the ones that Momentum is telling Roy about."

"And Momentum told you all of this?" Bruce asked.

Dick shook his head, "No. He told me that he was trying to help the League, but he lied to me. I haven't confronted him about that yet."

"Then who told you that?" Bruce demanded, a hint of worry creeping into his voice.

Dick winced; Bruce wasn't going to like his answer, "The Rogues."

Bruce's eyebrows rose, "The Rogues?"

"I found them in my room at the Mountain one night. They told me about Momentum's situation and they convinced me that they were telling the truth. They said that there was going to be an important hit in the Orleans Parish that night and that there wasn't a chance for the Justice League to get there in time and that the Team would have to take care of it instead of you guys. I trusted them and, sure enough, Cheshire, Sportsmaster, and Momentum were all there and they all escaped. You remember that night." Dick said. Bruce nodded and gestured for him to keep going, "They've been periodically informing me of hits that the Light were going to make. I've been feeding Roy potential hit locations for him to feed to you to suggest for the Team to do since only you can send us on missions and the Rogues didn't want to be implicated. That's why the Rogues had to make sure that the bigger assignments still got completed and that we only took out the small and medium size projects on our missions."

"You sound like you were handling this fine yourself." Bruce said in a tone that said that although Dick might have been handling it himself, Bruce still wasn't pleased.

Dick gave him a weak smile and said, "I was, until it went beyond me. I asked the Rogues if they could dig around the Light and try to figure out who the mole was. They figured it out. They even played a recording of the person. They said that they knew that I had a contact in the Light and that they wanted one of the members of the Light to handle the situation. He informed the Light about me and just wrote me off to some random Light member and I just… I didn't even expect it." At this point, Dick had his eyes closed and fists clenched, but he could still sense that Alfred had come to over on the other side of the counter and that Bruce had stiffened in shock and anger and frustration.

Bruce's voice was gentle, though, when he spoke next, "Who is it, Dick? Who said that?"

Eyes still tightly shut, Dick answered, "Flash." He distantly heard Alfred drop something and gasp in shock. He could feel Bruce stiffen further next to him.

Bruce's voice was thick with emotion this time, "And you're sure?"

Wordlessly, Dick pulled out a small computer and pulled up his surveillance of the location he used to meet with the Rogues. He watched Bruce's expression as the man watched that night's meeting. He watched as Bruce slowly became Batman.

"I don't know if it's true. I don't  _want_  it to be true." Dick said, voice small, "But it looks pretty true right there. I didn't know what to do, so I brought it to you."

"Thank you, Dick, for trusting me with this. That was very brave of you." Bruce said, letting go of Batman for the brief moment he needed to comfort his ward.

Dick smiled at him in gratitude before asking seriously, "What are you going to do next?"

"I'm going to call a Justice League meeting. It's going to be just the founders and the heroes with kids on the Team. First I'll call one without Flash present, and then I'll bring him in to defend himself. We'll figure this out, Dick, alright?" Bruce said, placing a large, warm hand on Dick's shoulder.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks." Dick responded, finally mustering the motivation to eat the rest of his muffin.

Bruce smiled, "No problem." He started working on his own muffin too. The moment was one of the more peaceful moments in the Wayne Manor and Dick was definitely enjoying it.

Of course, good, peaceful moments never lasted long around heroes and Batman's comm was soon blasting to life. Superman's voice called out evenly, " _Batman. There's a couple of metas out in Happy Harbor that are causing a mess and most of the rest of the League is tied up right now. Want to go ahead and send the Team out to take care of it?_ "

"I'm on it." Batman responded before asking, "Do you need me where you are?"

" _Nah, we should be good. We're almost done with the battle. Clean-up's going to take about forty five minutes, though._ " Superman said before there was the sound of something being vaporized in the background, " _Scratch that, no more clean up necessary. Now we've just got to finish the fight._ "

"Justice League meeting as soon as you're finished. Spread the word to the Founders and to the Mentors of kids on the Team. Don't tell Flash though." Batman ordered.

Dick could hear the frown in Superman's voice when he asked, " _Is Flash alright? What's going on Batman?_ "

"I'll tell you in the meeting. I've got to go get the Team out to Happy Harbor." Batman threw back. Superman didn't respond.

Batman and Robin walked into the Batcave, changing quickly before going through the zeta tube. Robin had already sent a message out to his teammates telling them to assemble at the Cave.

When the two Gothamites got to the Cave, everyone else was already there. Most of them had already heard of the attack on Happy Harbor and had been heading towards the Cave to see if they could help. Robin's call had just confirmed what they were already doing.

It didn't take Batman long to explain the situation and set the teens loose on Happy Harbor, quietly reminding Robin that he'd be in a meeting if he needed him. Robin nodded and followed his leader out into the bioship which they'd use to fly to the other side of the city where the attack was happening.

It was easy to tell once they'd gotten to the scene that these villains weren't nearly as experienced as a lot of the people they went up against. One of them was shooting off energy blasts at key points in buildings, knocking them to the ground as he went. Every time one of the police officers tried to shoot him he would teleport a short distance away before shooting off more energy beams. Robin scanned him on his arm computer and called out mentally, " _That one's just using a suit! He's not a metahuman!_ "

" _Got it._ " Artemis sent back.

Aqualad inquired, " _And what of the other one?_ "

The other one was a woman who was rushing around the buildings, smashing through them and blowing air into the faces of the people she came across. Robin's eyebrows rose and he answered, " _The woman's definitely a metahuman. She's blowing what seems like nerve toxins at the people. So be wary of her._ "

" _It is difficult for an Atlantean to be affected by toxins. I will take care of her if Miss Martian wishes to assist me from above?_ " Aqualad suggested.

" _Of course!_ " Miss Martian responded cheerfully.

" _Good_." Aqualad said before continuing to give out assignments, " _Zatanna and Artemis will deal with the teleporting one. Trap him in an area and take him out there. Superboy and Robin will assist in evacuating civilians and stopping the remaining buildings from falling. Are your roles understood?_ "

" _Yep!_ " Artemis and Zatanna called at the same time.

" _Got it fearless leader._ " Robin said with a grin.

" _I understand!_ " Miss Martian cheered.

" _Yes._ " Superboy said, already running towards the nearest building.

From there, it was endless rounds of, "Yes, I'm a hero. I'm here to save you. No, you can't go back for your phone. No, I don't currently have time to sign your dentures." It wasn't anything that Robin wasn't used to and it was never the most exciting part of the job. It was, however, still rewarding. The daycare he'd burst into had been especially rewarding. The gaggle of little girls had looked up at him with huge, watery eyes and flyaway hair and small stuffed animals held like loved, protected children. The attendants held aluminum baseball bats in tremble-y, shaky hands.

When they'd seen Robin standing in the door, they'd dropped the bats with a loud metal clang. Two of them had dropped to their knees and burst into grateful tears. The rest were more practical and started hustling the children into some semblance of order. The two that had started crying quickly dried their tears and started manhandling the girls with the rest of the attendants. Each girl got into her very specific place in line. Some had fingers firmly placed in their mouths and others were still scrubbing at the tear tracks lining their cheeks.

Robin told a few jokes to break the heavy silence and made sure to humorously overexaggerate his stumble when the entire building shook. Unbarring the window and sticking his head out of it quickly, Robin saw that Zatanna and Artemis had managed to pull the teleporting one away from the daycare where he'd apparently escaped to at some point. Giving them a quick thumbs-up in thanks, Robin turned back to the assembled crowds and led them through the building, making sure that he made a show of being unafraid for the kids and checking all the doors and windows for the adults.

When the group had finally made it out of the danger zone and behind police lines, one of the two attendants who had broken down earlier turned around and dropped to one knee in front of him, grabbing him in a hug and pulling a bracelet out of her pocket. She whispered that it was one of the luck bracelets the class had made last St. Patrick's day. She showed him the small collection of them that she'd been building up since she started working at the daycare and told him with a small smile that she figured that he might need it more than her and it was the least he could do. Accepting with a grin of his own (and suspiciously wet eyes thankfully covered by his mask), Robin quickly tied the bracelet around his wrist and then raced away. However amazing saving people like that was, there was a battle to be fought.

Finding himself finally on the battlefield, Robin realized that Superboy was grappling with the toxin lady with Miss Martian launching crates at her and Aqualad darting in with attacks when he was sure he wouldn't hit Superboy. Artemis was up on a building and shooting a cage of arrows around the teleporting dude. Zatanna blocked all of his zaps with shields and muttered counterspells. The two kept growling angrily when he got out of their cages. Robin figured that he was most needed there and he crouched behind a fallen wall of one of the nearby buildings, pulling up his computer and typing in some algorithms before grabbing the security footage from a nearby street camera and launching one of his tiny drone cameras up in the air too.

He watched the other two fight the teleportation man while he computer did its work. Zatanna raised her arms and shouted, "Etaerc a egac fo erif!" Flames roared around the teleportation man, one singing the corner of his suit, causing him to hiss and teleport off to the side. Artemis was ready with a polyurethane arrow. The man's eyes widened as he heard it hissing through the air towards him. He wasn't able to avoid it completely as it smashed into his arm and started shooting out foam immediately. He teleported again, bringing only a small portion of the foam with him. That much foam was able to completely take out one of his energy blasters, though which was helpful in the battle.

Finally Robin's computer finished running the program and he was able to look at the results. He called out mentally, " _Zatanna! Artemis! He can teleport ten meters in front of him, six meters behind himself, twelve to the right, and seventeen to the left._ " He quickly relayed his plan to them and leapt out from behind the crate to start it.

Robin threw a Batarang and watched as the man's breath shortened for a moment as he realized that he had the attention of a Bat on him. Robin cackled loudly and then shot a grappling hook at the man, wrapping it around the man's feet and yanking them out from beneath him. Zatanna was already shouting her spell as he finished, "Etaerc a egac fo erif!" A larger cage of fire than the time before sprouted around the man.

Robin punched him in the face before pulling out another grappling hook and aiming it for the building opposite the one Artemis was perched on. He looked back on the scene as he flew towards the building. As he watched, arrows flew across the space encircled by the fire. They were all polyurethane arrows and the foam was already sprouting. The man tried to teleport to the side and ended up directly in one of the many piles of hardening foam. He cursed them the entire time the foam soaked into his suit and expanded, breaking the undoubtedly expensive wiring and machinery.

Artemis and Robin dropped back to the ground and high fived each other before glancing back towards the other side of the block where they saw the toxin lady unconscious on the ground and Superboy looking at a loss of what to do. Aqualad nodded to them with a small, happy smile. They finished! And the collateral infrastructural damage actually wasn't that bad.

Of course, that was when the Rogues showed up.


	31. False Accusations

HHHHHH

Hartley's heartbeat sped up as the group entered into Happy Harbor. Both members of the duo they'd sent to attract the little league's attention had been detained already. That was quite impressive. Over the time that the Team had been in existence and especially recently as Light activity picked up, the Team had significantly improved. It was honestly amazing to watch their performance. They certainly hadn't been wrong to strike out on their own.

Hartley was broken from his musings by Captain Cold raising one hand, fingers splayed, before closing it into a fist and twisting it. That was the signal to start the plan they'd worked up on the way here. Hartley immediately moved over to Captain Cold and Heatwave. The three started forward into the chaos created by the Light's agents. Cold and Heatwave stood on either side of Hartley, guarding him from anyone who thought that he was easy prey.

The second that the little leaguers came into view, Hartley lifted the flute to his mouth and started to play. They didn't want the Team noticing them yet, so Hartley made sure that he hit a note that only the Superman clone would be able to hear. He watched in satisfaction as the clone winced and grabbed his ear, glancing around. Just before he would have looking in the direction of the Rogues, Hartley played a way higher note. The Kryptonian dropped to the ground, ears clutched in his hand and a roar tearing past his throat. That got the attention of the rest of the group. None of them could figure out what it was that was making Superboy react the way he was. Hartley sustained the note he had started, assured in the fact that the rest of the Rogues would protect him and make sure that he could keep the strong alien occupied.

Phase two started immediately after that.

Captain Boomerang and Weather Wizard tore onto the scene from the opposite direction, boomerangs flying and lightning smashing. When the two groups typically fought, Weather Wizard and Zatanna would immediately gravitate towards each other and test their strengths against each other. Mark had explained something about their powers being matched and not minding a girl in a tight uniform or something equally pervy. Hartley hadn't really cared at the time. This battle, however, Weather Wizard surprised the team by immediately going after the flyer with a lightning blast. The Martian barely got out of the way before she was struck. Zatanna went to move in against her usual foe, but Mirror Master was suddenly there with an army of clones around her. He'd trapped her in a ring of buildings with reflective surfaces and now she had to figure out which one was the real deal. There was no way she'd be able to get through before Weather Wizard took out the Martian.

Superboy started to stand up, still wincing in pain, but staggering to his feet regardless of the undoubtedly horrible pain. Hartley turned the volume and pitch up a notch. Superboy fell right back to his knees.

Hartley's trio started making its way towards Robin, who was staying on the fringes of the fight and seemed to primarily be trying to knock Captain Boomerang's boomerangs out of the sky before they got a chance to go anywhere near Robin's teammates. Captain Boomerang threw three boomerangs in rapid succession. Robin immediately shot out three Batarangs to retaliate, but when his Batarang hit Captain Boomerang's third boomerang, it splintered into several smaller boomerangs that then shot out towards Robin's teammates. He only got a chance to knock one of the sky with a Batarang. One of the others ricocheted into the mess of mirrors where Mirror Master was playing and hit Zatanna from behind. She tripped forward, directly into the path of Mirror Master's mirror gun. She fell to the ground, unmoving. The last boomerang arced straight towards Aqualad's head, but Artemis shot it out of the sky before it could make contact. Captain Boomerang cursed, but continued throwing his boomerangs anyways.

Another boom of thunder and crack of lightning attracted Hartley's attention and brought it back over to Weather Wizard and Miss Martian. That last blast had hit the girl square on the chest, electrocuting her and causing her to scream in pain before the blast propelled her into the side of a building where she was knocked in unconsciousness. Hartley couldn't help but think about Wally being terrified of storms because of how painful getting struck by lightning had been. He swallowed the guilt he felt and kicked the volume up as Superboy started to rise again.

As the trio kept making their way towards Robin, the little leaguers started to regroup. By then, the only ones standing were Aqualad, Artemis, and Robin. They were facing off against the entirety of the Rogues. Honestly, Hartley was surprised that the plan had gone off as well as it did. Then again, the two Light agents had obviously worn the Team out and the Rogues hadn't exactly stuck to their normal pattern of attack. Three little leaguers weren't to be underestimated, though. Hartley knew that the three of them could wipe the floor with a lot of villains and he knew that Robin was probably already turning things over in his head and would figure out their plan any second.

Thusly, phase three was initiated before the Bat could figure it out. Because with Trickster, his role always went off better when it was a surprise.

Even though Hartley had known it was coming, his music still stuttered for a brief moment when Trickster enacted his part of the plan. Completely out of the blue, there was paint  _everywhere_. It was as if an entire paint store had been upended on the small patch of city where the heroes were standing. He saw every imaginable shade of purple and green and orange and red and blue. There weren't any neutral colors or blacks in there. It really looked like a rainbow had thrown up on the heroes.

They were, apparently, just as surprised as Trickster had wanted them to be because for a long moment, none of them moved. The just stared blankly at the myriad of colors that stuck to their skin and started drying in huge, lumpy chunks that sloughed off their skin and puddled beneath them. The only thing that startled them out of their stupor was the boomerang that took down Artemis with a single blow. It was mildly amusing to see the paint go flying everywhere as she splashed down.

That just left Aqualad against Trickster, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, and Weather Wizard. Robin had noticed Hartley, Captain Cold, and Heatwave creeping towards him and had whirled around to fight them, eyes narrowing through the mask.

It wasn't easy to get the two heroes to separate from each other, but the group managed. It cost Captain Boomerang, who had been hit by the water bearer and promptly electrocuted and it had cost Mirror Master whose arm had been broken when he'd fallen wrong after getting hit by a Batarang. Mirror Master dragged Captain Boomerang and the original duo that the Team had fought back to the mirror they were using to get back to HQ because he was otherwise useless in the fight. By that point, though, Captain Cold and Heatwave stood between Robin and Aqualad.

Ducking in close, Captain Cold whispered harshly, "Robin, we need to talk to you. We couldn't get in contact the normal way."

Robin sent him a horrified look, "You mean you planned this whole thing – all this destruction and injury – just to get a meeting with me?"

"That's about it. We need to get into a building without cameras. I know you know where one is. Just lead the fight there and then we can talk." Captain Cold instructed, icing the spot where Robin's feet would have been if he hadn't leaped into a flip to avoid the shot.

Robin shook his head, "You're crazy!" Then, ruefully, he added, "Follow me."

The group jumped, shot, wrestled, dodged, and otherwise fought their way to a nearby building that they tumbled into with false bravado and faked shots. Hartley heard the moment his flute stopped assaulting Superboy's ears as the clone screamed out a roar of rage. It sounded like he was charging towards the building the Rogues had disappeared into, but he apparently decided otherwise as the sound of footsteps faded into the other direction towards where Aqualad was engaged in a battle too big for him. Hartley barely held in a snicker as he heard Weather Wizard's shriek at the sight of Superboy barreling towards him.

Finally, Robin faced them, hands still clutching a bo staff in one hand and a Batarang in the other. He was obviously glaring at them when he said, "What was so important that you had to destroy a city block to get my attention and why did the normal method of communicating not suffice today?"

Captain Cold's voice was flat and decidedly not amused when he answered, "There are a lot of things happening right now, Robin, and all of them are above you. I did this because it affects my Rogues and I will  _not_  take any sort of sarcasm or rudeness today. I'm not in the mood." Hartley shivered a little bit at the tone of his leader. It was one that was rarely turned on the Rogues themselves and never meant good news. When Robin reluctantly nodded, Captain Cold continued, his voice only a fraction warmer, "Flash isn't the mole."

Robin actually stepped back a little bit, face paling, " _What_?"

"Flash isn't the mole. We don't know who the mole is." Captain Cold repeated.

"Are you  _serious_?" Robin bemoaned, "The League is having a meeting right now discussing the fact that Flash is the mole and how to deal with it! This information would have been nice to have a couple of hours ago!"

Captain Cold interrupted what was probably going to be an impressive rant, "What did I tell you about me not being in the mood? You heard the evidence and came to the same conclusion that we did so don't you dare blame us for this mess.  _You_  were the one who decided to tell the League. The person that Flash was talking to was an up and coming hero that he placed undercover into the Light. It seems like everyone's got their own double agents in this mess."

Robin's lips turned down into a serious frown, "Why would Flash put a spy into the Light without telling anyone else about him?"

"Does it look like we know?" Hartley asked irritably. A look from Cold silenced any further comments from Hartley. As much as Cold didn't want to be antagonized, they also didn't want to antagonize their best chance of getting Wally away from the Light either.

Cold brought the attention back to him, "It doesn't matter why the Flash did what he did. What does matter is that the Flash's guy has a plan in all of this and we need you for it. We would have contacted you the regular way, but all sort of outside contact has been cut off and strictly forbidden and we were under lock down at HQ since Momentum's out on a mission. This was the only way we could contact you to get Flash's guy's plan rolling."

There was a long moment while Robin processed all of the information he'd been given. Hartley heard Artemis waking up on the battlefield. They needed to get going fast now that the Kryptonian had been released. Robin finally spoke, "What do you need me to do?"

"Capture Momentum." Captain Cold said easily.

The whites of Robin's mask widened considerably, "You think we haven't tried to capture him? The only time someone's succeeding in capturing him so far was when he gave himself up to the Flash to get you guys out of prison. Flash is probably the only one who can catch him currently and Flash is about to be crucified by the rest of the League."

Captain Cold and Hartley glanced at each other seriously for a moment, trying to gauge if they should tell Robin more or not. It didn't feel right to trust this kid with everything, but at the same time, Wally's life was on the line. Eventually, Captain Cold sighed and said, "Flash's guy said that Momentum won't pose any kind of threat during the mission and that you shouldn't have to worry about him. He's got Sportsmaster, Cheshire, and Icicle Jr. with him, though. You have to go to the League anyways to fix the problem with Flash, so if you need their help then get it. Otherwise, you need to capture Wally and take him back to Mount Justice with you. That's the only way he's going to escape. He's going to fight it once he gets back there, but he'll realize that it's for the best in the long run."

Robin nodded decisively before biting his lip. Heatwave huffed, "Out with it already."

Robin swallowed and licked his lips before saying, "I told Batman about this arrangement."

Hartley stiffened. Heatwave growled, " _What_?" He took a menacing step towards Robin.

Captain Cold raised a hand to stop him. Heatwave kept prowling closer, flames licking into existence at the end of his gun. The flames danced like Shinigami in Heatwave's goggles. Cold stepped in front of him, bodily pushing Heatwave away and freezing the end of his gun. Heatwave snarled at Cold before lovingly coaxing flames to the tip of his gun, melting away the hated ice.

While Heatwaves was otherwise engaged, Captain Cold turned back to Robin, "We understand. But, that means the deal is off. If we can't trust you to keep our arrangement a secret, we can't trust you with anything. Capturing Momentum is the last thing you'll do for us and this is the last time we'll interact. For this reason, at least."

Robin nodded, mouth still downturned, hands still on his weapons. Hartley heard Superboy bellow again and said, "We're running out of time."

Captain Cold nodded to him and then proceeded to give Robin the details of the mission that would end with Wally in their hands. Hartley clenched his fists. He didn't like this. He didn't like it at all. Yeah, Wally joining the Light had been bad, but him being in hero hands wasn't much better. The heroes were their  _enemies_  and they were giving the enemies Wally for free. It didn't sit well with Hartley. But he understood the need for it. He understood why Wally would be better off  _anywhere_  but in the Light.

The second Captain Cold finished giving Robin the details he needed, phase four of the plan began.

Heatwave, who had crept behind Robin under the guise of getting away from Captain Cold (and maybe actually trying to get away from their leader), leapt at Robin, bringing his heat gun down on the Bat's little black haired head. Hartley was already turning away towards the door, sprinting out and starting the note that would render Superboy practically useless again. Superboy crashing to the ground caused Aqualad and Artemis a moment of distraction as they both turned to their fallen comrade. Trickster used that distraction to fling his gift shaped tranquilizer bombs at them, shouting, "Christmas in July!"

Weather Wizard shouted after him exasperatedly, "It's December, moron! It's  _actually_  Christmas season!" Trickster just cackled in response, causing a small smile to curl onto Hartley's lips.

The bomb knocked Artemis out within seconds, but Aqualad was apparently made of sterner stuff because he just wavered for a moment before running out after them. Captain Cold flipped a switch on his gun and turned slightly, running almost backwards. He lifted his gun and shot a single blast towards the right side of Aqualad's body. Even as Aqualad was shifting to the left to avoid the blast, Cold was letting off another round, this one aimed to Aqualad's chest. It hit him straight on, dropping the Atlantean easily.

It was easy for them to get to the mirror where Mirror Master was waiting when all of their enemies were currently lying unconsciously on the ground.

Swallowing past the nausea that still came with traveling through the mirror dimension, Hartley sat heavily in one of the chairs in the conference room that the Rogues were granted whenever they were locked down in Light HQ. Hopefully Robin could pull off everything they wanted him to pull off. This was going to be bad otherwise. Luckily, Sam had had the idea that, yes, the easiest way for them to escape was to knock the enemy out, but if the enemy was knocked out, then they couldn't do what the Rogues had asked them to do. James had been given the task of laying out smelling salt bombs (this was James's special blend that he'd worked hard on) around the area where the heroes were unconscious. With that thought in mind, Hartley quickly hacked into one of the cameras near the area in Happy Harbor that they'd just left and sat back to watch the expressions on the heroes' faces when they started smelling those bombs. Especially the Kryptonian.

BBBBBB

Barry nearly whooped with delight as he finished the tests for another case. At the rate he was going, he was going to be able to go out to dinner with Iris. Since the whole Momentum debacle started, he'd been rushing around like crazy trying to deal with the  _everything_  that was all happening at the same time. If he was home for dinner, he'd been forced to scarf it all down before rushing off to do something else or another. It wasn't at all fair to Iris, but she was taking it well (like she took all things) and he wanted a chance to give her a formal 'thank you' for that. And it was looking like tonight was the chance to do that.

That moment was, of course, the moment when his communicator started buzzing. His League communicator. This time having to stop himself from groaning instead of cheering, Barry excused himself to the bathroom. Once he got there, he checked to make sure that the area was clear before sticking the communicator in his ear and saying, "Yep? Flash here. What do you need?"

" _Meeting in the Watchtower. Now._ " Batman said, voice stern and serious before the sound cut off and Barry realized that Batman had just basically hung up on him.

Barry narrowed his eyes at the device before sighing, "Rude!" He shook his head and went back to the lab, announcing easily that he was going to go on break for a little bit and that he'd be back soon. No one looked up as he left, but that wasn't really all that surprising. He was just slow, geeky Barry Allen here.

With that depressing thought, Barry walked quickly (for a human) towards an alley that he knew didn't have any cameras. He easily changed into his suit before rushing off towards the nearest zeta beam.

It was only seconds later that he found himself striding into a Watchtower meeting room. He sighed dramatically, "I'm late again, aren't I? Well, this one's Bat's fault. He didn't tell me about any sort of meeting until, like, a minute ago or something. I think I did quite well for my situation." Barry glanced around at the gathered group of superheroes. Not a single one of the gathered laughed or rolled their eyes in mock exasperation. Barry's brow furrowed beneath his cowl, "You guys are starting to kind of freak me out. Did something happen?" His only response was Superman and Wonder Woman sharing a look.

It was only once Barry sat down at his place at the table that Batman said anything. His voice was flat and growling and slightly hurt. Wait. What? Hurt? Batman didn't feel emotions. What on  _earth_ was going on. Batman said, "We don't want to believe what we heard, but the evidence speaks for itself. We're giving you a chance to defend yourself, though."

Barry didn't even get a chance to ask if something happened again before Batman was pressing a button on a remote that showed up out of thin air. An audio clip filled the room. Flash was startled to hear Plastic Man's voice first. He was even more startled to recognize the clip. Plastic Man said, " _Yeah, I get it. I'll work on getting him alone to have a conversation with him. So, any news for me?_ "

His own voice responded, " _There's nothing much to report. I mean, Robin's apparently got some sort of informant who's getting him information about the Light. That's where the Team is getting most of their missions. No one can figure out who it is. Robin won't say who the informant is. Could you try to look around and see if you can figure out who the snitch is?_ " Barry started to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Plastic Man threw back, " _You saying there's someone grassing on the Light and they don't know about it yet?_ "

Barry had said back, " _This the first time you hear about a snitch?... Then yeah, there's someone informing on the Light and they don't know about it yet. I'm sure you'll handle that situation, though_."

What Plastic Man said next made Barry suddenly realize what this was all about, " _And you're sure my girl is looked after? She's getting the money I'm wiring through and no one's messing with her, right?_ "

Barry closed his eyes, momentarily feeling overwhelmed. He felt everything slow down around him as his control slipped and, for the moment, he was willing to let it stay like that. In the long, stretched out moment, Barry looked at his teammates – his friends – and tried to understand how it had come to this.

They thought he was the mole. And he had to admit that they had some pretty solid evidence. It certainly sounded like he was the mole. Someone in the Light must have overheard that conversation. He didn't know if it was Roy's informant or Robin's informant or what, but if they had been looking for the Team's mole and heard that conversation, there were few conclusions one could come to. He gave out information about the Team to what they thought was a Light agent, told that supposed agent to deal with it, and then that supposed agent asked a question that made it sound like Flash was ensuring his girlfriend's safety in return for the agent's cooperation. It was so completely different than what had actually been occurring through that conversation that Barry almost wanted to laugh, but the thought that all of these people – his friends – currently suspected him of being the mole killed any kindling desire to laugh the situation off.

Taking a shuddering breath in, Barry slowly let time trickle back to normal speed around him. It returned to normal just in time for Superman to ask, not unkindly, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Barry spread his hands peacefully out in front of him, "It's not what it looks like."

Hal snorted from where he was leaning as far away from Barry as he could get, "That's what they all say." There was definite hurt laced through his voice and trapped in the tense coil of his muscles.

Frustrated, Barry shoved his cowl off, staring straight into the face of one of his best friends, "If you think me 'betraying you' hurts, think about how much it hurts me that you guys can accuse me of this. I mean, seriously? You guys know me. I would  _never_  betray the Team like that."

"Then explain that." Dinah said seriously. She, at least, looked willing to believe in him. The rest? Not so much.

Barry nodded, "Yeah, I can do that. Do you guys have any clue who that other man talking is?"

Batman pressed another button and a mugshot popped up. He started talking, "Patrick 'Eel' O'Brian. He was arrested for drunk driving, but was a suspected member of a criminal ring. He was known among the underworld as a great safe-cracker and lock picker. After a heist gone wrong where he was shot and fell into a vat of chemicals, he disappeared completely. Until now where my computers were able to identify his voice by comparing it to the video of his arrest. He's a criminal."

Dropping his head on the table for a moment, Barry sighed, "Of course that would be what you find. Look, he's changed! What I was trying to get across with this whole tangent was the fact that he's a superhero in training – he calls himself Plastic Man now! He got my number from a friend and called me so I could help train him to become a hero instead of a criminal. That dip into the vat of chemicals gave him powers and he realized that he wanted to do good with those powers and I wanted to help him. That's who I was talking to. A superhero! He was one of the best people I could think of to put undercover because, like you said, he's got a criminal background."

"You're trying to say that you put a mole into the Light? What was wrong with the one Roy had?" Ollie asked, mouth twisted in a line that said that he hated the situation he was forced into at the moment. He would be the first to defend Barry, but the last to start trusting him again.

Barry answered quickly, willing honesty into his voice, "We don't know who Roy's informant is. And being an informant wasn't the main reason I put Plastic Man in there."

Hal interrupted him by muttering under his breath, "The main reason was to use him as a means of getting your info about the Team to the Light."

Barry glared at his friend before continuing, "I put him in there because he knows Wally."  _That_  drew the attention of the rest of the group. A lot of them stopped scowling quite so fiercely, their shoulders losing a little of their tenseness. They knew that there was no way to fake the way he'd been so completely shell-shocked when he'd found out that Momentum was Wally and they knew that there was no way to fake the frustration he'd felt when he realized that Wally had joined the Light right after he'd tried to talk to him, to help. After a moment, Barry continued, "Apparently, him and Wally met in some criminal bar that he refuses to tell me the location of. He gave Wally his card and the two talked a little bit, eventually becoming friends. Wally helped him get his girlfriend. They're not super close, but it was the best that I was going to get. Plastic Man tried to convince Wally to leave the Light, but he wouldn't, so Plastic Man suggested that he could go undercover with the Light and try to convince Wally to leave and maybe get some info about the Light while he was there."

"That's a nice story, but how do we know you're not lying?" Diana asked, leaning forward seriously.

Clark frowned, "His heart rate didn't spike at all other than right after the initial playing of the clip."

"He could easily just be a skilled liar. If he has been a traitor since the founding of the Team, then he would have to have immense lying skills." J'onn stated mildly from where he was sitting.

Barry pointed exuberantly towards the Martian, "You! You can just read my mind and see the truth, right? Just look in my mind and tell the rest the truth about it!"

J'onn at least had the decency to look apologetic as he said, "I am afraid I cannot. Speedster minds move too quickly for me to read."

Throwing his head back against the table, Barry moaned, "Seriously? What did I do to deserve this?"

Hal muttered from the side, "Betrayed all of us."

"You," Barry said, voice lowering dangerously, "Need to stop before I kick you." Hal just continued to glower at him.

Arthur commented with a frown, "You could have started off with the intention of doing good, but have been pulled into the evils of the Light by your nephew."

Barry switched his glare onto him, "Wally isn't evil! He may be a villain, but he's a mild one! He doesn't kill or do drugs or human trafficking or anything like that! He can be changed for the better. I know he can! And I've only talked to him once since the night I went to the Rogues' safehouse. That one time I talked to him was what spurred me to put Plastic Man undercover. That clip you heard wasn't anything bad! I was just asking how Wally was doing and if there was any change in his condition. And then Plastic Man asked for news about the outside world because he was pent up in the Light HQ and was going stir crazy. They have ridiculously tight security and rules for going outside. He was blindfolded and disoriented every time he left the compound. You just caught the conversation at the wrong time and at the worst part. You have to believe me."

"We don't have to do anything." Dinah frowned, arms crossing as she leaned back.

Barry sighed, running a hand through his short blonde hair, "What can I do to prove this to you? How do I fix this?"

Clark shook his head with a sigh, "I don't know if you can fix this, Flash."

Before anyone had a chance to respond, though, Robin burst through the doors. Wonder Woman turned an accusing glare onto Batman, "How does he have access to this place?"

Batman didn't get a chance to answer before Robin was staring his mentor straight in the face and saying, "Flash isn't the mole."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, sorry about this! Late nights so I didn't get a chance to update. This whole update-every-day thing would be a whole lot easier if my school hadn't blocked AO3. Ugh. Anyways, here are your chapters!


	32. Wally's Gone

DDDDDD

Dick had kind of been prepared for the pandemonium that would erupt after his statement, but at the same time, he had  _not_ actually been prepared for the pandemonium that would erupt. He didn't think that anyone would be prepared for the Justice League erupting into pandemonium. For a good long moment, he just sat there with a mildly thunderstruck expression on his face.

Finally, Superman got the group under control, saying firmly, "Get ahold of yourselves! We need to listen to what Robin has to say."

Wonder Woman frowned, "We need to know how Robin has access to the Watchtower. This is for Justice League members only. He shouldn't be able to get in here by himself."

Dick watched as Batman glared at the Amazon, "I did not give him access to the Watchtower."

Dick smiled guiltily, "The, uh, the Watchtower kind of has the same network as the Batcave and, well, I use the Batcave to practice my hacking." Batman pinched his nose lightly in the background, sighing heavily as the Justice League stared at Dick in mild horror.

After another pause, Flash raised a hesitant hand, "Hey, can we get back to the part where I'm not the mole?"

"Oh, right!" Dick said, going over to stand next to the Flash. He looked Flash in the eye (or, well, in the mask), "I'm really sorry. This is my fault. I was the one who gave Batman the clip with you and your mole talking, and who first suggested that you were the mole."

"It's fine, Robin. Everyone makes mistakes. As long as you can recognize it, it's alright." Flash gave him a bright smile and Robin couldn't help but feel thankful for this man who was so bright and positive and such a good influence on the rest of this team.

Robin nodded before turning back to the room as a whole, "Again, I am sorry for the mistake and confusion. My moles in the Light made that recording as they were looking for the mole and came to the conclusion that Flash must be the mole. They were then confronted by Flash's guy who explained the situation to them. Those metahumans in Happy Harbor? That was my moles' way of getting my attention to talk to me."

Green Lantern was giving Flash a strange look, but Flash ignored it in favor of asking, "Is Plastic Man okay? He hasn't been able to get in contact with me. Apparently, all outside contact has been shut down."

"They didn't say how he was specifically, but he seems alright. My moles said that he was planning on getting out sometime soon. He's going to do one last thing to make sure that Momentum gets out and then he's going to leave himself." Robin assured Flash quickly, seeing that the man was visibly upset at the idea of not knowing how his mole was doing.

Aquaman asked tentatively, "Robin, may be ask who your moles are? I feel that this conversation would be more understandable if we were to know that fact."

Robin winced, "They didn't want to be known about. I already lost the deal we had because I told Batman who they are. I don't want to betray what little trust we had by telling more people."

Batman spoke up, staring inscrutably at Robin before turning to face the table, "I have no such responsibilities. Robin's moles are the Rogues." Robin stared at his mentor and father figure, horrified. He couldn't believe that he'd just told them! Robin had told him that in faith and he'd betrayed it. Batman's expression didn't change, but there was a note of apology in his voice that Robin could only read from long times spent with the man, "They needed to know Robin."

Robin sighed, "I know."

Flash was visibly reeling, "My… my villains are working for Robin. Why… why didn't they come to  _me_  first? Don't they know they can trust me? At least, with that much."

Robin winced, "It's not their fault. Not only did they need someone who was with the Team since we're dealing with a lot of the Light's problems, but… they knew that I was friends with Momentum. I didn't know he was Momentum originally, though."

Flash seemed to have not been paying attention because he was still muttering to himself, "They know that I care about Wally. And… they know I would have protected him. Wait… wait, that means that my villains were the ones who originally suspected me of being the mole! The Rogues thought that I was the mole!"

Robin really winced at that one, biting his lip before responding, "You have to admit that the evidence really pointed towards it. It wasn't really their fault that they thought that. And they were generally distressed at the idea that you were the mole. They honestly didn't think you had it in you."

Nothing seemed to appease Flash as he just sunk slightly into his seat, lips curled slightly downward. There was nothing Dick could do there. He'd try to help Flash feel better later. Right now, he needed to focus on the plan that Flash's mole had. Speaking into the suddenly silent room, Robin said, "Flash's guy apparently has a plan. That, and the fact that Flash isn't the mole, is what the Rogues needed to talk to me about. So, the Light has a mission going on right now that has Momentum, Icicle Jr., Cheshire, and Sportsmaster all in one place. According to Flash's guy, this mission is the only chance we have at getting Momentum out of the Light's hands. The Rogues said that Momentum won't be a problem. Apparently Flash's guy never expanded on that, so I have no clue what that means. It sounds kind of ominous though. The Rogues said that we needed to capture Momentum and bring him back to the Cave."

"Why are you telling us this?" Batman demanded.

Robin glanced to his mentor, "The Team has to get its missions cleared through you before we go on them. Plus, I needed to tell you guys that Flash wasn't the mole. It was my decisions that led to him being accused and I needed to fix my mistakes." He swallowed painfully. Dick was at least partially aware of his faults and he knew he was a prideful person. Admitting that he was wrong had been hard. He'd wanted to blame the Rogues or Flash for talking like that or Flash's guy just because, but he couldn't. He was a member of the Team now and he and Aqualad had founded this team to show that they were ready for the superhero world without an adult holding their hands. And that includes being big enough to admit to his own mistakes.

And those words were apparently what finally got through to Flash, who lifted his head and smiled a small little smile at Robin before he abruptly stood, "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

"I don't think the Justice League should go." Wonder Woman suddenly said. Robin glanced at her, surprised, especially as she continued, "If the Justice League appeared, the Light would likely send backup and the situation would be blown out of proportion. I believe that the Team is more than prepared to deal with this situation." Wonder Woman had always been one of the people most against the idea of the Team. She didn't' like the idea of children fighting through the same world she fought through day in and day out. Being a hero wasn't pretty and there was a lot of things that you saw that were nightmare material. And Wonder Woman had always been against introducing that to a group of children. What she had never understood was that they were introduced to that world anyways. There were very few, if any, heroes with a happy background and there were even fewer who started out their hero careers with anything less than some sort of revenge as their motivators. Eventually, the good heroes realized that revenge wasn't the answer and that they needed to have other motivators, but that was how they started.

Black Canary nodded in agreement, "They're ready."

The room was silent as people glanced back and forth between each other, trying to decide if they really thought that their kids, their proteges were ready for this job. Finally, Batman stared Robin right in the eyes and said seriously, "Get ready for your mission."

WWWWWW

Wally groaned loudly, dramatically zipping through the lines of trees and trying his best to avoid the squishy parts of the ground. Icicle Jr. laughed at him, "Glad to finally be back on land where you can run around?"

Wally nodded enthusiastically, "You were just in that car! You  _know_  what it's like now! Sportsmaster and Cheshire fight the entire way! It's even that cliched arguing over directions. If they'd just let me run you guys over, we could have been done with this entire mission before the first hour was over. Honestly! I mean, seriously, we had to switch from a car to a boat! I wouldn't have had to switch. I can  _run on water_. Cars can't do that. Ugh!"

Icicle Jr. laughed again, but that laugh dried up into a pitiful little 'eep' as Cheshire suddenly appeared in front of him. Wally burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. Icicle Jr. stuck his tongue out at Wally, making him laugh even harder. Cheshire simply smacked the two of them upside the head.

Sportsmaster killed any sort of good mood that had settled over the group, "There was a good reason for the timing, brat. Now, you two go get the item from the archives. Get in, grab it, get out. Cheshire and I will be covering your retreat."

"Yeah, yeah, we've got it." Wally sighed, pulling his cowl up over his head. Without wasting a second, Wally scooped Icicle Jr. in his arms and raced off towards the archive. In, grab, out. Simple mission. There were  _way_  too many top players for this simple of a job. It was kind of ridiculous actually.

At least, it was ridiculous until the trap was set off. There hadn't been a single thing in either his or Icicle Jr.'s mission dossiers about trip wires in front of the building. Wally cursed as he knocked into the ground, Icicle Jr. yelping as he went flying across the ground. Wally cursed again as he saw that Cameron wasn't getting back up again. Then again, getting slammed against a tree after being thrown against the ground at several hundred miles per hour probably doesn't feel the best.

Trying to stand, Wally bit down yet another curse. Hitting the wire that fast had  _not_  felt good on his leg. Not only that, but the wire that he'd tripped over had ripped out of its anchoring and was now firmly wrapped around his leg. Wincing as he speed-dragged himself over to where Icicle Jr. was lying unconscious, Wally pressed a button to activate his comm. Breathing harshly through the pain of his quickly healing leg, Wally said, "We've got a problem."

" _It's been less than a minute, brat._ " Sportsmaster's annoyed voice came through.

"Yeah, I know. Not my fault this time! There was a trip wire and, well, I was not prepared for a trip wire and therefore tripped over said trip wire  _really_  fast." Wally rambled.

Cheshire groaned through link, " _Are you serious? Are there any injuries?_ "

Wally winced. If they'd been mad before, they were definitely not going to be amused now, "Icicle Jr. is unconscious and it'll be a couple of minutes before my leg is good enough to run on again."

Cheshire's voice wasn't annoyed now; it was something dark and dangerous and straight out of a nightmare, " _Are you serious? This was supposed to be a simple mission._ "

Wally laughed nervously, suddenly very glad that he wasn't currently anywhere near Cheshire and her sais, "I think what we  _should_  be focusing on is the fact that all of our reconnaissance said that there was, like,  _no_  protection around this building. So, if there weren't any trip wires or any other kind of trap beforehand, then where did the trip wire come from?"

There was a long pause as that sunk in for everyone. Cheshire hissed, " _You need to retreat now! The Team is probably-,_ "

And despite the fact that it was practically suicide to interrupt Cheshire, Wally cut in, "Yeah, no. The Team is not probably here. The Team  _is_  here. Anyone want to come cover me?"

Wally could practically hear Sportsmaster slam his fist into one of the nearby trees as his cursing filled the comms. Cheshire was a lot calmer, simply saying monotonously, " _We'll be right there._ "

"Awesome." Wally muttered to himself, eyeing the Team members that were already surrounding him and the unconscious Icicle Jr. Keeping one eye on the approaching heroes, Wally started to shake his friend, "Icicle. Yo Icicle! Now would be a great time for you to wake up. It would be a really super time. Come on, Cameron, get up!" Icicle Jr. didn't wake up.

Aqualad spoke first, expression wary, "Give yourself up. You cannot escape."

"Wanna bet?" Wally growled, crouching over his friend protectively. His leg was almost completely healed at this point. Soon he'd be a force to be reckoned with.

Artemis sneered at him, "You're surrounded and your leg's hurt. There's not a lot you can do here."

Wally's feral grin took her off guard – almost as much as the leg that suddenly swept under hers did. Wally's smirk was very self-satisfied as he said, "I'm not the only one who's surrounded. You seem to be in as much trouble as I am. Probably more to be honest."

The Team burst into action around him. He watched in concern as Zatanna instantly shouted a spell that made the vines nearby wrap around Sportsmaster, immobilizing his furious form. Robin immediately locked himself into battle with Cheshire and, to Wally's horror, seemed to almost match her in skill. That shouldn't be possible. Maybe they weren't enough for this mission. Maybe the higher ups should have sent more.

Narrowing his eyes, Wally thought. He and Cameron had been making comments the entire trip down to the parish about how weird it was that the Light would put four heavy hitters onto an easy mission all at once. Did they know this was going to happen? Were they supposed to take the little leaguers out? Maybe this was in one of the other member's mission dossiers. That was why they needed to share their individual dossiers with each other. Then there wouldn't be such confusion.

Then Wally's mind threw itself back to when he'd told Cheshire and Sportsmaster that there were other people here. They'd been genuinely surprised at the little leaguers' presence. So the Light didn't know that they were coming. Then how did the League know to send their sidekicks after this mission? The only answer that Wally could think of was a mole. But who was the mole? There were countless options. And Wally didn't know how long whoever this was had been informing on the Light, so there was no way to narrow down the list of who it might have been. So…

The sudden realization of who it was – who it had to be – made Wally's eyes widen and his breath catch. The only person who had seen their mission was Plastic Man. He'd said that he wanted to be a hero. Wally had  _heard_ Plastic Man working with the Flash. How had he not seen it before? It was so painfully obvious now that he thought about it. How could he have let this threat into the Light? Because this was, undeniably, his fault. It was his fault that he hadn't realized that Plastic Man was a threat to the Light. It was his fault that he'd let his friendship with the former criminal get in the way of assessing potential dangers.

But… he couldn't tell the Light. The idea of telling the Light that Plastic Man was a mole informing the Justice League physically pained him. This was his friend. Patrick had helped him figure things out and had helped him get the Rogues out of JL prison. He'd helped Patrick get a girlfriend. Wally couldn't throw all of that away just for some organization, could he? He knew what Cheshire's answer would be: she'd bring him straight to the heads of the Light. He also knew what Freddie's answer would be though: he'd tell him to help Plastic Man hide and make sure that he wasn't caught. Wally was stuck in the middle of this tug of war between the heroes and the villains and he hated it. He was a villain! He stole because it was fun! He kidnapped people to escape! He used his powers to pick on the defenseless just because he could! And yet… and yet… he still couldn't force himself to tell the others that Plastic Man was the mole.

Wally was broken from his inner thoughts when an arrow narrowly avoided his face. The only thing that stopped the arrow from smashing into his nose was a blast of ice knocking it off course. Grinning, Wally cried out, "Icicle Jr.! Dude, can I just say sorry for dropping you? Like, yikes man."

The whole side of Icicle Jr.'s face was black and blue when he turned to glare at Wally, "I hate you. I am officially not your friend anymore. You are a horrible metahuman being."

Wally pouted at him, "You don't hate me. I'm your only friend!"

Icicle Jr. turned back to face him, having momentarily turned to look at the fight, "I'm sorry, what did you just say? You do not know how to get back on someone's good side."

"I'll purposely lose to you in the game room for a week." Wally said cheerfully, turning to assess the situation himself.

Icicle Jr. grumbled, "You lose anyways." Wally let out a soft huff of laughter.

Luckily, the fight wasn't as one-sided as it had been when he'd last looked away. Somehow Sportsmaster had gotten out of the vines and seemed to have taken Zatanna out during the process. He was currently locked in a vicious battle with Artemis. The female archer seemed to be totally absorbed in the battle she was currently fighting. There was something dark and  _angry_  in her expression as she threw her everything into taking Sportsmaster out. Somewhere in that heated battle was a personal vendetta and a painful past together. It almost reminded Wally of the way Cheshire and Sportsmaster acted.

A cry from his other side made Wally turn to where Cheshire was currently engaged with the rest of the Team. Glancing at Icicle Jr., Wally could tell that they'd both made the same decision: Cheshire needed them more.

As Superboy made a flying leap at Cheshire, Icicle Jr. shot a blast of his ice at the half-Kryptonian, knocking him out of the air. For a brief moment, Superboy sat there, confused. Icicle Jr. used that moment to pour a huge amount of his power into icing Superboy. He continued to keep the clone down, putting layer after layer of ice on him. Superboy never got a chance to break through all of the ice before there was another layer there to stop him. Cameron gave Wally a strained smile, "I've got the Kryptonian. You deal with the rest."

"I see how it is." Wally grinned. He watched where Cheshire was fighting with his eyes narrowed. Who could he take out the easiest? Probably Aqualad. Poor Aqualad, honestly. Somehow Wally ended up battling him almost every time they met up.

Settling a foot against the base of a tree, Wally prepared to jet forward. They were in a rather dense area of the forest, so there was practically zero room for him to accelerate, but he was going to have to make due. Taking a deep breath, Wally pulled the air in, feeling the Speed Force thrum in his veins. Time trickled to a stop around him. Lightning quick eyes darted around the scene. Superfast computing abilities analyzed the most likely next locations of all the fighters. Sparks danced over his skin. Finally, finally, he let time pick back up around him. Before it got back to normal speed, Wally shot forward, speeding onward and onward as Miss Martian cried out in surprise and Robin turned to him with a wide, open expression and Aqualad frowned and –

And he smashed into the ground for the second time that night. Coughing, Wally gasped as something shifted in his chest. He'd definitely broke something in that one. He hadn't really gotten a chance to process that he was falling before he'd already hit the ground. He hadn't gotten a chance to try to fall properly and his body was not amused with that.

Wally caught the panicked look on Cheshire's face just before Robin grabbed him from behind, efficiently and quickly zip-tying Wally's hands before adding on electronic handcuffs. Wally tried to think past the pain flaring up in his chest. There was… there was something wrong. His – why – why did he fall? He's better than that. He can run through forests without tripping. He'd learned that skill a long time ago. What… what was happening?

Coughing again as his rib protested the pull of his arms behind him, Wally scrambled to organize his thoughts. He needed… he needed to get out of these handcuffs. Maybe if he vibrated fast enough, he could overheat the electronic handcuffs. He'd figure out the zip-ties later. Wally started vibrating his hands, frowning when something didn't feel right. His hands… they weren't vibrating. They were just shaking. Almost like… almost like…

Wally's gasp was a lot louder now, blood rushing through his ears and face paling dramatically. His powers. His powers weren't working. It was like there was some sort of thick, concrete wall separating him from his powers. It was like wearing an inhibitor collar but without the actual collar. How did this happen? How did his powers disappear? Where were they? Whatwasgoingon?Howcouldthishappen?Why?Why?Whywhywhywhywhywhy?

Distantly, a voice registered in Wally's ear, asking concernedly, "Hey, are you okay? Momentum? What's going on?"

Voice hoarse with the panic coursing through his veins, Wally croaked, "What did you  _do_? What did you do?!"

The person standing above him reeled back at the sudden shout. Wally realized it was Robin staring down at him. He also realized just how quiet it was. The… the battle was done. His comrades were gone, disappeared. There was a trail of blood off to the side and Wally distractedly wondered whose it was. Robin saw where he was looking and said sympathetically, "Your… team left you. I guess they didn't consider you worth the effort of trying to save."

Trying to not let it show how much those words hurt him, Wally swallowed down the pain of being abandoned  _again_  and instead growled, "What did you  _do to me_?!"

"What are you talking about?" Artemis growled right back, frown settled intensely on her face and hands clenched tightly around her bow.

Wally's hands tightened in their bonds, "What do you think I'm talking about? What did you do to my powers? You got them to stop working without touching me. What did you do to them?!"

The startled looks that the group gave each other didn't really improve Wally's mood. Did they seriously not know what happened? If it wasn't them that took his powers, then who could have done it?

Voice carefully neutral, Robin asked, "Could any of your teammates have had some sort of anti-metahuman weapons? Something that would knock your powers out?"

Wally growled at him, using his legs to push himself away from the semi-circle of mini heroes that had gathered around him, "What would they possibly gain from knocking my powers out? I'm their  _teammate_. Besides, did you see Icicle Jr.'s powers stop? Because I sure didn't." He inwardly cursed his apparent inability to heal at a superfast speed. Whatever had taken his speed away had gotten that too. His perception of time didn't seem to have changed, but that might just be something ingrained into his cellular structure at this point. He wasn't sure if it was possible to take away his enhanced perception and brain processing speed. His ribs sent out another groan of protest and Wally barely held in one of his own.

The heroes glanced at each other again. They seemed to be having a silent conversation of their own. A very in depth one, if the length of time that they stared at each other was any indication. Eventually, Aqualad turned to face Wally, expression carefully wiped of emotion, "You are now our prisoner. We will take you to our base to be detained. We will also investigate your… situation."

Wally raised a skeptical eyebrow, "You're going to show the location of your base to the enemy?"

Artemis's grin was positively frightening when she said, "Oh, don't worry. You won't see the location of the base. You'll be unconscious for the entire trip."

Wally was about to ask what, exactly, she was talking about since he was very much conscious currently, but the punch to the temple answered his question quite nicely. Artemis grinned as Wally fell deeper into the black pool of darkness that pulled him in and Wally couldn't help but think that she would make a very efficient villain.

LLLLLL

Lex was waiting anxiously, practically perched on the edge of his chair at this point. This was one of the few moments in his life that he let the excitement he was feeling really show through. He was so used to hiding his emotions away and making sure that no one could tell what he was really thinking that this naked display of emotion felt uncomfortably foreign to him, but he didn't particularly care at the moment. Not when this was really happening.

All the years dedicated to this research and they were about to have the final reveal. This was the last piece of the puzzle and once Luthor knew how it worked, he'd be able to start really working on the project in earnest.

Wally, having been a test subject for a long time before escaping, had been an integral part of the discoveries that have pushed this research project forward. The knowledge they'd dug out of his metahuman genes had been incredible. They were able to learn so much about how the metahuman gene worked and, most importantly, how it was activated.

It was incredibly fascinating to note the different mutations on the gene between each metahuman with different abilities. It was even more interesting to see that each mutation was caused by some sort of external factor. Wally's came from the mixture of chemical exposure and being struck by lightning. One of the other test subjects had only needed a strong rush of adrenaline to activate their metagene. It was absolutely  _fascinating_.

In the end, the answer to forging the metahuman ability in regular humans wasn't hard at all. It was a simple solution, but it had unfortunately required some rather rough and oftentimes… painful experimentation to come to the right realization. But when Luthor found out that his genes weren't compatible with the treatment to give him metahuman powers, he realized that just being able to give people powers wasn't enough. If he didn't get to have it, then he needed a way to shut the powers down. The scientists had been working for months to pull together the right formula and mechanics to deactivate the metagene, but they said that it was hard to really observe the results unless they had a test subject that was well researched by themselves. And by that point, there weren't any test subjects that had survived the tests.

So when Wally had walked back into Luthor's life, he'd been ecstatic. This was his chance! The scientists had told him that they needed Wally to be calm when they injected the serum they created into him because of how the adrenaline spikes would affect the results. That put a bit of a metaphorical wrench in Luthor's plans. Wally certainly wouldn't trust any sort of scientists after his former experience with them, so there needed to be a level of trust between the organization and Wally before the experiment could really begin.

And he'd done it! Lex Luthor had manipulated Wally into trusting them enough for the serum to be administered and finally,  _finally_  the test was occurring. They'd sent Sportsmaster, Cheshire, Icicle Jr., and Wally out to get some worthless object from the archive so Sportsmaster and Cheshire could observe the way Wally reacted the deactivation of powers. He needed to be in a place where he wouldn't associated his powers disappearing with the Light, so they needed him to be on a mission at the time. And he needed some comrades with him to make sure that he isn't hurt in his vulnerable state. Soon, Cheshire would be calling him with an update on the situation. He just needed to wait a few moments more and –

There! His phone started ringing. Luthor barely checked to see if it was Cheshire before he answered. He didn't even get a chance to speak before Cheshire was hissing, " _Why didn't your scientists turn his powers back on when I told them to?_ "

Luthor frowned and snapped his fingers at a Mercy, indicating that she should check on that. She moved quickly to show him a clip of the scientist's room from a few minutes ago. He watched with an angry scowl as the scientists finished their call from Cheshire and moved to turn the powers back on. He watched as something that looked almost like an arm snaked into the room. He followed the thing back to its base and realized that it was shoved underneath the door. He watched as the hand of the arm reached up and broke the only computer with the programming to turn Wally's powers back on. It would take them several days to either fix that smashed computer or recreate the program.

Gritting his teeth, Luthor reached over to the intercom and pressed a button on the side. Immediately, everything went into red alert, the doors shutting down and the windows locking. Luthor said into the intercom, "All Light agents. Find and apprehend one of the new agents. Code name: Plastic Man. You will be rewarded." Turning the intercom back off, Luthor turned to his phone, "Plastic Man stopped the scientists from turning it back on. I have shut down the facility, but I presume that he has already escaped. I expect you, Sportsmaster, and Icicle Jr. to find him and capture him. I want him back here alive. Send Wally back here."

There was a short growl from Cheshire, " _Send Wally back? Because his powers were off, he was captured by the Team! Wally's gone!_ "

Luthor closed his phone, eyes slipping shut for a moment. Those words echoed around his mind: Wally's gone.  _Wally's gone_.


	33. Explaining Things

WWWWWW

Wally groaned into consciousness. The throbbing pain in his temple reminded him quite efficiently of what had happened. Apparently his powers were still gone. Normally, he wouldn't have such a headache since the injury would have been healed by the time he woke up. Scrunching his nose slightly with the pain in his head, Wally swallowed through a dry mouth and tried to sit up slowly. Despite how slow he sat up, his ribs still sent out steady flares of pain. Gasping slightly, Wally pushed on upwards. It was sad how unused to pain he'd become in the time he'd stayed with the Rogues. There was always the burn of muscles after training or a bruise here or there after a heist, but nothing like a punch to the side of the face and broken ribs.

When he'd finally sat up, Wally tugged at the cuffs around his wrists. There was a long length of chain between the cuffs and the wall they were imbedded in. The chain between his legs didn't have anywhere near as long of a give and he knew that he wouldn't be able to do much more than hobble with these on.

Bringing a hand up to massage his uninjured temple, Wally breathed slowly through his nose. The cell he was in wasn't very large, but it was certainly fancy. Three walls looked to be smoothed down cave walls, but the fourth was a clear glass that Wally was certain was well enforced. He could see a lock on the outside of the glass that obviously needed a key, a keycard, and a passcode. They weren't taking any risks with him apparently. He felt like the cuffs were a bit overkill, though. Like, seriously? He was not getting through that door. And besides, these were just normal cuffs, so it wouldn't be that hard to pick.

Nevermind, Wally thought to himself. He was zip-tied to the cuffs. Even if he got out of them, there was no way he was getting out of the zip-ties. The only ways he knew how to get out of them were if his hands were zip-tied together and even then it was hard to do unless they were in front of him. He could do it sometimes when they were behind him, but it was difficult. Zip-tying his hands to the cuffs? There was no getting out of that. Plus, those cuffs weren't all that easy to pick either. They were definitely high end technological models. It looked like Wally wouldn't be escaping from this cage. He'd have to wait for an opportunity when someone let him out. There wasn't any sort of bathroom in here, so it was obvious that they'd need to let him out at some point.

Sighing, Wally leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He obviously wasn't getting out, so he might as well take the time to think things over. Why had his powers stopping working suddenly? Why were they  _still_  not working? Were Cheshire and Icicle Jr. alright? There was no way to know how his comrades were doing, so he focused on the other problem at hand: his powers. They've never stopped like that before.

Even when he was young and new to his abilities and just starting to understand everything he could and couldn't do with them, they've never just fizzled off. No other metahuman he'd talked to had had that problem either. There were people who  _wished_  their powers would have just stopped working (metahumans alone on the streets were prime victim material because hospitals wouldn't always treat them and police didn't always listen to them), but none that actually stopped. So why did his?

Unbidden, his mind returned to Patrick asking him if he even knew what the Light's experiments were for. No. No! The Light needed him; they weren't going to knock out his powers in the middle of a battle. Besides, he watched everything they did. Every test they did was on his samples: a blood sample, a tissue sample, a hair sample. They never did tests on  _him_. He'd told the scientists right away that he would stop going to them the minute they tried to test on him and they were perfectly fine with that. A small voice in the back of his mind asked him what the shots they gave him each week were for.

Clenching his fists, Wally tried to swallow down his doubts. The shots were to make sure that he didn't contract anything from the lab he spent so much time in. It didn't matter that he never saw any of the scientists or Cheshire taking shots – they probably just took there's at different times. It didn't matter that he didn't come into contact with anything in the lab that could cause diseases – the scientists just wanted to make sure that his immune system was prepared for if he accidently had contact with some bad blood samples. It didn't matter that none of the vaccines he'd ever heard of required as many shots in as little time as whatever vaccine the scientists were giving him – it was probably just something special that the scientists there had whipped up because they were super smart scientists.

Groaning again, Wally lifted his head and slammed it back down on the wall behind him, hissing slightly at the pain. Who was he kidding? There were only two options: either the scientists with the Light had been injecting him with something that allowed them to shut off his powers, or the Team had done something to only his powers while they'd been fighting. Wally could pinpoint a specific thing within the Light that could have led to it, but the Team had greater motivation. So which was it? Either way, when Wally got back to the Light, he was going to demand that the scientists tell him what experiment they were working on.

That was as far as Wally was going to get in answering that particular question. Now what was he going to do? There obviously wasn't anyone around which meant that the Team likely wasn't going to come get him anytime soon. Which meant a lot of waiting. Which was a particularly brutal form of torture for speedsters. The same time for a normal person lasted indefinitely longer for a speedster. And when someone was bored, their perception of time was even faster which meant that Wally would be waiting for a really, really long time.

With nothing else to do, Wally stared back out at the glass separating him from freedom. He startled a little bit when he looked at his reflection. There was a giant bruise blossoming on the side of his face. It was honestly kind of fascinating to look at. It had been  _years_  since a bruise had stayed long enough for him to really look at it. The bruise was a dark purple with slightly blue tinged edges. He knew from his time with the Rogues that bruises this color were only hours old – maybe twelve at the most. That was good news at least. It meant that he hadn't been stuck here for that long.

Wally tenderly probed the bruise, first skirting his fingers around the edges of it before gently poking in the center. He winced and hissed out an expletive before taking his hand away. Bruises were  _painful_. Like, sure they hurt when you got them, but they kept hurting for a long time. Bruises  _sucked_. Figuring that he might as well check out his ribs while he was at it, Wally went to unlatch the top part of his suit from the bottom half.

He realized with a start that he wasn't actually in his suit.

Glancing with wide eyes back at the slightly reflective glass in front of him, Wally saw that he was in a plain white t-shirt and plain grey yoga pants. His feet were bare. His entire suit was gone. Lifting his shirt revealed that his ribs had been tightly wrapped. That was creepy. This whole thing was creepy. Someone  _changed him_  while he was  _unconscious_. He hoped it was a guy at least, but it was still weird and uncomfortable. The last time Wally had been changed while he was unconscious was when he was still with the scientists and he'd fallen unconscious from blood loss or pain or something and they changed his outfit into something that wasn't coated in blood. That had been something that happened far too often. Wally dug his fingernails into his palms to stop himself from slipping into a memory of those labs. He didn't need to be there. He was changed out of his suit because the goody-two-shoes heroes needed to wrap his ribs and because they didn't want him to be able to get something out of his suit to help him. That was it. That was the only reason they changed his clothes. He wasn't in the labs anymore.

A few seconds later, Wally finally calmed down. He swallowed and winced a little as he realized that his short nails had dug further into his palm than he'd originally thought. Small, pale crescents were sluggishly welling with blood. It was fascinating to watch that too. Little, tiny, barely through the skin cuts like that would have healed almost instantly before.

"What's so interesting over there?" A voice called out.

Wally jumped, smacking up against the wall and jostling his ribs while he was at it. Gasping slightly as he got the pain back under control, Wally looked through his eyelashes at the figure that stood on the other side of that infuriating glass. It was his uncle.

And it really was his uncle too. It wasn't the Flash with a bright red cowl hiding blond hair and bright blue eyes. It was Uncle Barry's face that stared worriedly through the glass, cowl hanging out over his back. Relaxing minutely, but still wary, Wally lifted a hand towards Uncle Barry, showing the bleeding crescents there, "It's weird actually seeing them. Normally they're healed before I even realize that they're gone."

Uncle Barry's face fell slightly at the reminder of the state of Wally's powers, "We'll get your powers back in no time." Wally looked down at his lap where his hands had fallen. He looked at the small cuts and couldn't help but think that this should be normal. Seeing them before they healed should be normal, not expecting them to knit back together almost instantly. Uncle Barry must have seen something on Wally's face because his voice was a lot less jovial and lot kinder when he said, "You don't want them back, do you?"

Wally's head whipped up, "Of course I want them back!" He faltered a little bit at Uncle Barry's unimpressed look, but he kept going, "I don't hate my powers. I did, once, but I don't hate them anymore. I just… hate being a metahuman, you know?" He gave a little half shrug at the end.

Barry's gaze softened even further in understanding, "Yeah, I know. The powers are cool and useful and you get used to them so they become a part of you, but being seen as something not human sucks. Metahumans are less than humans; they're monsters. We're threats. We're unnatural. We're freaks. And that sucks." Wally nodded, glad that he hadn't needed to say all that himself. He liked his powers. He just didn't like the bad rep he got because of them.

There was a soft silence between the two of them until Wally broke it, "I don't suppose you can let me out?"

Barry chuckled slightly, "I definitely can't let you out, kiddo. You've caused a lot of problems with your work for the Light. I don't know if they'd have gotten as far as they did without you." The way he said that, Wally wasn't sure if he should be proud or not. Uncle Barry continued, "Once the Team gets out of the infirmary, we're going to have a meeting to decide what to do with you. We can't let you go though."

Wally sighed and rested his head back against the wall, "I figured as much. Thought I'd check just to make sure."

Eyes searching Wally's defeated figure, Uncle Barry finally said, "Your Aunt Iris wants to see you." Wally's jaw clenched, but he stayed silent. Barry continued determinedly, "She was beside herself when you went missing all that time ago – we both were. You might have hated us for letting you go back to your father, but we never stopped loving you. We never gave you up for dead either. We kept looking."

Snorting softly, Wally said, "You know, the first time I ran into one of the Rogues was also the same time I first saw you after going back to dad." Uncle Barry made an interested sound in the back of his throat and Wally continued, "I was just sleeping in this nice alley before the sounds of Captain Cold freezing some police woke me up. I saw that he had this huge bag of money in his hands and I was like, score! So I made the stupid decision to go quickly grab the bag. He obviously wasn't expecting a speedster to come up behind him. But then, as I was running away, I stooped down to grab my backpack and he shot me with his ice gun. Before he could do anything, though, you yelled out his name and went speeding after him. I don't know if you caught up to him or what, but I was able to vibrate out of the ice and make off with the money before you came back."

"Ha! You stole from the Rogues and they let you join?" Uncle Barry asked, eyes dancing.

Wally grinned a shark's grin, "Pretty sure they only asked me to join because they wanted a speedster to go up against you."

Uncle Barry laughed, "That sounds like them."

Before Wally could respond, Uncle Barry put a hand up to his ear, obviously listening to something before he said, "Yeah, I'll be right there." Flash pulled his cowl up and turned back to Wally, "I'll be back as soon as I can. And, for the record… I'm sorry." He didn't need to say what he was sorry for; Wally understood. Uncle Barry was sorry for leaving right then, he was sorry that they were in this position, he was sorry that he didn't find him through the years Wally had been gone, he was sorry he let Wally's dad take him back. He was sorry for everything.

Uncle Barry left before Wally could say something in response and for that he was grateful. He didn't know what he would have said if his uncle had stayed to wait for a response. Sighing, Wally put his head back against the wall, eyes slipping shut. All he could do now was wait.

DDDDDD

Robin glanced carefully around the room. Everyone was gathered for this conversation. There was Red Arrow and the original seven Leaguers and all the Leaguers with kids on the team and the Team was there. Even Plastic Man had found his way back to Flash and had been brought here. It was time for everyone to finally get everything out and stop keeping so many secrets from each other. All they were doing was allowing the Light to win by tripping over themselves and ruining each other's plans.

Superman started, "We are here to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding the Light. There has been a lot of new information and we need to come clean with each other to make sure that we can properly react to what it going on." He paused and made sure that everyone took in what he was saying before he turned to Roy, "Red Arrow. You were the first one to have a contact in the Light. Who is it?"

Roy's jaw clenched and his fist dug into his leg, but he answered, "Momentum." Robin gave him as much of an encouraging look as he could. He knew that it was hard for Roy to give up his informant when he'd grown so attached to him.

Green Arrow tentatively asked the next question, "How did you come into contact with Momentum? How did you convince him to work against the Light?"

Red Arrow glared at Green Arrow before he answered, "Momentum and the Rogues went to steal from Green Arrow's civilian identity when we were visiting the Flash. I caught him in the room, but he escaped. I ran into him later that night and realized that he'd left the Rogues because he thought they didn't want him. I told him that he could be my informant instead and I'd help him out where I could. He obviously ended up getting back with the Rogues, but he still worked as an informant with me. He was the one who helped me catch Onomatopoeia and who gave me the info on the Light that he got when running a job for Grodd. Then the Rogues told the Light that they'd let Momentum work with them and Momentum called me and told me that he'd give me info on them. Then he actually joined them because he was mad at the Rogues or something. That's all I know."

Batman spoke next, indicating Robin with a nod of his head, "Robin has more to add to that."

Roy glanced at Robin, startled, but Dick just shrugged and spoke to the gathered group, "Remember that time that the Team went to Central for team bonding? Well, at the park, I snuck off and starting talking to this kid on a park bench. We exchanged numbers and texted all the time. I gave him the false name Freddie and he gave me the false name John." Dick saw the rest of the Team light up with recognition, remembering his phone call with the mysterious 'John'. Dick continued, "It wasn't until I overheard a conversation Red Arrow had over the phone with Momentum that I realized that Momentum and John were the same person. The next time I saw him though, he'd already joined the Light. It was the splitting into an adult and child world thing that got him to leave the Rogues. Apparently he'd told the Rogues something important the night before and when he woke up, the Rogues were gone. The idiot didn't even realize that all the adults were gone."

Flash spoke up gently, "The night before the worlds split, Momentum told the Rogues that he was my nephew and he told them a little bit about his past." The Team – the only ones who didn't know that Momentum was Flash's nephew, gaped at the scarlet speedster. He chuckled and said, "Yeah, weird isn't it? We're not even related by blood and we both somehow end up being speedsters. Luck of the draw, I guess."

Robin continued at Flash's nod, "Momentum still doesn't know that Freddie and I are the same person, but I kept in contact with him as Freddie while he was in the Light. He told me that he had to stay with the Light because he was doing good by informing on them to the Justice League through Red Arrow. He lied, though." Roy's head whipped up to stare at Dick seriously and Dick winced slightly, frowning as he explained, "The Light was telling him about small, useless missions that he could tell Red Arrow so the Justice League would continue to think that it had a mole in the Light. He had told the Light about informing on them to the League."

Roy's voice was rough with anger and a little bit of hurt when he asked, "And how do you know that?"

Robin took a deep breath and answered, "Because the moles that I have in the Light told me."

Artemis threw her hands into the air, "Does everyone have moles now? The Team supposedly has a mole, Red Arrow had a mole, Robin has a mole! This is ridiculous!"

"This is also why we're having this conversation." Black Canary chided gently. Artemis hung her head a little bit.

Robin continued, "One night I came back to my room in the Cave and the Rogues were there." He waited as the initial commotion that came with finding out that some well-known villains had infiltrated the Cave before continuing, "They told me all of that before saying that they'd been hired by the Light to keep the Team from messing with their plans. The Rogues made a deal with me that they'd inform me of as many missions as they could as long as I promised to take down the Light. They want the Light gone too because they didn't like the fact that they'd manipulated Momentum into joining them. They also knew that the Light would be a threat to them the moment they acted out of turn. So they came to me."

"So Momentum obviously isn't an in with the Light, but at least we've got the Rogues. That's at least some good news." Zatanna said.

"Not so much." Robin winced.

Aqualad sighed, "What happened?"

Dick hunched his shoulders slightly, "I told the Rogues that I'd never tell someone else about our deal, but I told Batman. They said if they couldn't trust me with keeping our deal a secret, then I couldn't be trusted with anything else and they broke off the deal."

"Why tell Batman, then?" Superboy asked curiously. Out of the rest of the Team, he seemed the least bothered by this secret.

"That would be my fault." Plastic Man said. As everyone's head swiveled to look at the newcomer, Robin took the time to observe him. This was actually his first time seeing the hero. The man had an interesting combination of short shorts and a  _very_ low v-neck (as in, practically his entire chest was revealed) and huge white glasses with dark lenses. He was fidgety and seemed to lean towards Flash. If it wasn't obvious from the fact that Batman hadn't even heard of him, then his mannerisms gave away the fact that he was definitely a brand-new hero.

Wonder Woman asked sharply, "And who may you be?"

"Plastic Man's the name, hero-ing's the game." Plastic Man gave them a winning smile that fell flat in the silence of the room. He muttered to himself, "Someday, I'll say that and people will cheer."

Flash gave him a small chuckle before saying, "You're going to have to explain how this would be your fault."

"Right." Plastic Man said before diving into his story, "So, I met Momentum in a criminal bar in Star City and helped him get in contact with Onomatopoeia. I had no clue the kid was trying to capture the guy, but that's a whole other can of worms. We became fast friends and he was the one who eventually gave me the Flash's number when I got powers and decided that I wanted to become a hero. I went to the Flash and he started showing me how to become a hero. We realized that we both knew Momentum, but we couldn't convince him to leave the Light. So, I went undercover with the Light to get Momentum out and to give some info on them to Flash if I could."

Artemis groaned, " _Another_  mole."

Plastic Man grinned at her, "Yep! So I got there and was giving info and stuff to the Flash. And, one day, the Rogues caught me talking to Flash over the phone and they heard some stuff out of context that made it sound like  _Flash_  was the Team's mole. So the Rogues told Robin, who told Batman, who told the founding members of the League."

Miss Martian put a hand to her cheek, staring at Plastic Man in shock, "The Rogues believed that Flash was the mole? He is so kind!"

"Thanks, Miss M! But, like Plastic Man said, the evidence was pretty legit. They just heard the conversation at the wrong time." Flash said.

Plastic Man picked up the story, "Over the phone call, Flash had told me that Robin had a mole in the Light and he asked me to look for them. I figured out that it was the Rogues who were informing on the Light and I went to confront them. That was when I realized that they thought Flash was the mole. We talked it out and I told them that I had a plan to get Momentum out of the Light. I just needed them to get a message to Robin."

Robin nodded to him and continued the narrative, "You know that attack on Happy Harbor? That was the Rogues getting my attention to tell me the message. Remember how they separated me from the rest of you? I led them to an abandoned building for us to talk. They told me that Flash wasn't the mole and that there was a mission going to happen with Cheshire, Momentum, Icicle Jr., and Sportsmaster and that the mission was the only chance we'd get to get Momentum away from the Light. The Rogues said that Plastic Man said that Momentum wouldn't be a threat, but they couldn't say why."

Plastic Man took the story back again, "So, Momentum's been run ragged with the Light. He's either on a mission, training, or in the lab. The scientists are supposedly Luthor's, but I'm not certain about that. I don't know what other tests they were doing on him, but they were injecting him with something twice a week that, once it built up enough in his system, allows them to shut his powers off." Dick watched as Flash gave a full body shudder, clutching his arm slightly. He was probably imagining what it would be like without his powers.

The whites of Batman's mask widened fractionally, "The mission was a test run for the scientists. They wanted to try shutting his powers off. But the Team wasn't supposed to be there. They shut his powers off in the middle of his battle with the Team. Why didn't they turn the powers back on? Can they?"

"See, that's why I needed to scram. When the scientists turned his powers off, I broke the machine controlling it. I knew that if I kept his powers from working, you guys would be able to catch him and that would be the only way he'd get out. They can fix it, but it'll take a couple of days before they can get the machine fixed or rebuilt or whatever they need to do." Plastic Man answered easily.

"What are we to do with Momentum now?" Aqualad asked.

Flash sighed, staring down at the table with slumped shoulders. Dick knew that this had to be hard for him. Momentum was a villain, but he was also family. It was Red Arrow who answered, though, "Isn't it obvious? We keep him here and try to figure out what he knows about the Light. He might even know who the mole actually is."

Flash frowned, "Do you really think he'll answer any of our questions? The kid's been through some tough things in his life. I don't think there's a lot we could do to get him to talk."

"Then we send in someone who he trusts. Like you, or Plastic Man, or Red Arrow. Maybe try to work Freddie in there." Green Lantern answered, gesturing to each person in turn.

Plastic Man shook his head, the corners of his mouth tipping down, "We can't do that to him. Do you know how severely the Light has manipulated him? And now you're going to do the exact same thing. You're going to ruin him. Any small ability to trust people that he might have is going to go straight down the drain if you do this. Aren't you heroes? Aren't you supposed to care about rehabilitating villains and all that jazz? Because manipulating them is not rehabilitation."

Flash sighed again, "You said it yourself, Plastic Man. We're running low on time. You said there were only a couple of weeks left before the Light enacts their big plan. We need to get something before that happens."

"Maybe so, but is there not a different way to do it?" Plastic Man asked, clearly upset.

Artemis cleared her throat slightly, "Why don't we rehabilitate him, then? I mean, Plastic Man is right – sometimes villains can be helped. Especially one who used to be a Rogue; they're not particularly villainous in the first place. It wouldn't take long to rehabilitate one of them. We show him what it's like to be a hero here at Mount Justice and  _earn_  his trust and the information. I'm sure if we worked at it hard enough, we'll be able to show him that being a hero is worth it in time to get the information." Everyone stared at Artemis in shock. She colored slightly under the attention. Robin himself was quite shocked. For all intents and purposes, Artemis had seemed to hate Momentum with a burning passion. It was strange that she would advocate so strongly for giving him the chance to change. Then again, maybe it wasn't so strange considering her own background. Robin gave her a nod of approval and she nodded back, relieved.

Black Canary mused, "It could work. And that way, it shouldn't hurt his willingness to trust. If we can't get the information, say, a week and a half, then we might need to take more drastic measures. This will take a lot of time, though. I would say that the Team would need to be here twenty-four seven with him to make sure that it worked."

"Luckily," Martian Manhunter began, "It is currently a school holiday so it should not be so difficult for everyone to stay here if they and their guardians are willing."

Miss Martian smiled prettily at the group, "Obviously Superboy, Zatanna, and I are fine with staying here." The rest of the Team laughed slightly.

Robin had a silent conversation with Batman before announcing, "I'm good to stay here too."

Aqualad looked at his king, "With your permission, I would be willing to stay here for this important mission."

Aquaman nodded back at him seriously, "I grant you my permission."

Artemis glanced up, "I've just texted my mom and she says it's fine with her if I stay."

Aqualad looked over the group seriously, "It is settled then. We have a week and a half to completely rehabilitate Momentum."


	34. Morse Code

WWWWWW

Wally had expected people to come and see him after whatever meeting Uncle Barry went to was over. It was obvious that the meeting was about what to do with him, so it made sense that they would come talk to him. He hadn't expected, however, the sheer number of people who paraded through to talk to him.

It was Barry who came first, Batman and Black Canary flanking him on either sides like a dark, terrifying backdrop. Uncle Barry took down his cowl and smiled reassuringly at Wally before saying, "We've come to our decision regarding you, kid. You're on house arrest here at the Team's HQ. You will be under constant surveillance and you will not be allowed to leave under any circumstances. Is that understood?"

Wally was more than shocked; they were seriously going to let him roam free with a bunch of mini heroes and the chance that his powers might turn back on?  _Seriously_? What was wrong with these people. There had to be some sort of catch. Wally grinned, "So, what I'm hearing is that I've got free reign around the mini leaguer's place where I can eat you out of house and home while waiting for the perfect opportunity for you to let your guard down, right?"

Batman legitimately growled at him, "You will  _not_  have free reign. Your movements will be limited. The Team will  _not_  let their guards down. You will not escape.  _If_  your powers return, you will be given an inhibitor collar. Is  _that_  understood?" Emotionless white cloth watched Wally for a reaction.

Wally made sure that his coldest 'friendly' grin (modeled off of Captain Cold's of course) was on full display – the one he used when Len let him lead business discussions – before responding, "Oh, it's understood." Batman narrowed his eyes, but chose not to say something. Wally was pretty sure he'd caught the slightest of approving nods.

Uncle Barry sent Batman a slight glare before turning back to Wally, "Look, Wally, we're trying to help here. The Light is dangerous and you'll only get hurt working with them. We don't want to hurt you; we really do want to help you. But if you push us, we'll push back. We have to. You're dangerous and, as you are now, we can't let you get free. Please,  _please_  don't make me have to take you down."

"Who says you can take me down?" Wally laughed.

Black Canary responded instantly, "Your lack of powers says you can't take him down."

Wally glared at her, fists clenching, chains rattling around his hands. Shaking his head slightly, Wally lifted his hands and asked, "When am I getting these things off? And do I get a room with a legitimate bed, or, like, a  _bathroom_?"

"Who said we're taking the chains off?" Batman asked. Wally was pretty sure he saw the man smirk as he said that. He saw  _Batman_  smirk.

More importantly, though, "Are you  _serious_? You  _cannot_  seriously be considering keeping me in these chains the whole time I'm stuck in this stupid place! Are there no longer things called human rights? What kind of heroes are you that you'd do that? Bad heroes, that's what kind!"

Black Canary stifled a laugh into her palm, "It's moments like these that I realize that teenaged villains really are just teenagers. The poor kid's all worked up and throwing a tantrum."

Wally glared at her again, fighting the urge to cross his arms and prove her point, "Back off, lady. I'm  _not a kid_. So don't you  _dare_  treat me like one." He slammed his hand on the glass wall separating them to make his point. He noticed that Uncle Barry flinched slightly in the background.

The smile slid off Black Canary's face and she stepped forward to the glass. She was so close that their noses would be touching if there wasn't a clear barrier between them. She stared him straight in the eye and said, "Here's the thing about being an adult,  _kid_ ," she emphasized the title, "You've only truly grown up when you can truly appreciate being a kid. People who insist that they aren't kids, aren't adults yet. I want to be a kid. I want to be able to smile and laugh with the other kids and play around instead of fighting crime and dealing with real life.  _That's_  what being an adult is. I get that you've lived on your own for a long time and you commit crime which is the criminal equivalent, so I get that you've done things that are adult-like. I get that you think that experiencing that entitles you to more respect because people know that you can handle things.  _That doesn't mean that you're an adult_." She stared into Wally's eyes for a long moment, long enough that Wally felt the need to shift his eyes away, stepping slightly back from the glass. Black Canary shook her head and said quietly, "You'll understand someday."

There was a tense moment of silence, but Wally figured that only he and Uncle Barry really felt it. Batman broke it too soon with a gruff, "Your house arrest begins tomorrow." He turned away and let his cape flutter behind him. Black Canary swayed out after him, sending one last searching look behind her before rounding the corner. Uncle Barry was the last to leave, pressing one still-gloved hand against the glass before leaving with a heavy sigh.

As he turned around the corner, Wally sunk to the ground, covering his face with one hand. Three Leaguers united against you was never a fun experience. It was quite draining, actually. The entire time, Wally had been fighting the urge to inconspicuously cringe away from them and find somewhere to blend in. It went against his very nature to be noticed by people like them, by do-gooders.

And what was with that lecture at the end? He would 'understand someday'? What was she, his mother? Still, as much as it irritated him that she would lecture him like that, her soul-searching eyes had unnerved him. It was like she'd seen  _him_  in a way that he'd let very few people see him. The Rogues were the last ones that he'd let in, that he'd willingly shown himself to out of trust. And trust was hard to come by with him. Then there was Black Canary, barging in there and looking at him and taking apart all his secrets with a single glance. Wally didn't like her. He didn't like her eyes or her face or her annoying, lecture-y voice. But, if he disliked her that much, then why did he get a warm feeling at the thought of this stranger caring enough to lecture him like a mother would do?

A new voice yanked him out of his thoughts, easily pulling him into the present and away from the poisoned edges of his childhood memories. Plastic Man called out, "Momentum, my man, what's up?"

Wally raised an unimpressed eyebrow, jaw clenching slightly, "Really? Infiltrating the Light? How stupid are you, Pat- Plastic Man? They're going to kill you. You not only got in and got info, but you escaped too. They're going to kill you and they're going to find everyone close to you and they're going to kill every last one of them before killing you."

Patrick's jaw was clenched to as he spoke, "You know, that threat would be a lot more threatening if you'd said 'we' instead of 'they'."

Wally pulled back slightly, eyes widening, "That wasn't a threat! I didn't… I didn't mean for it to come out that way."

Patrick frowned, concern lighting over the hurt that had briefly settled there, "That's why I had to get you out of the Light. You're starting to become one of them. And no, before you say anything, that's  _not_  a good thing. I don't want to get into another fight about this, but I told the League and the Team about your mission for your good. I had them capture you to  _help_  you. I'm not telling you to accept the help. I'm not asking you to make it easy for them. I'm just telling you why I did what I did. You're my friend, Wally, and I'll do as much as I can to keep you safe."

Slumping a little bit, Wally started to pace his cell, "I know, Plastic Man. I know that you're trying to be a good friend, but it's not working, alright? I was happy with the Light. I was perfectly fine. I didn't need saving or anything like that and I was completely a-okay."

"Sometimes the hardest threats to see are the ones that are closest to you." Patrick said wisely, sticking a finger in the air and everything.

Wally threw his hands in the air, groaning, "Seriously? Why is everyone so insistent on  _lecturing_  me today? I don't  _want_  to be lectured! I want to be back on the compound and I want my powers turned on and I want to know that my comrades made it out of the battle alright. Can't I get what  _I_  want for once in my life? Don't I deserve a break?"

"No." Patrick said, startling Wally, "No, you don't get a break. You're a villain and a thief and a criminal, Wally. Life might have been hard and it might have seemed impossible for your moral choices to have gone any differently, but that's not true. There is always a chance to pick good over evil and you kept choosing evil because it was easier. And now? Now is your time to pay for what you've done. You don't deserve a break because you haven't earned it. Having bad things happen to you doesn't mean that you should get it easy for a while. Having bad things happen to you and standing strong and fighting back and staying positive?  _That_  deserves a break. You have to earn one before the universe will give it to you."

Wally growled and faced away from Plastic Man, hands back to clenching into irritated fists. He heard Patrick sigh behind him, "Apparently all we seem to be able to do recently is fight. Can I at least ask that we leave this fight on a good note? Please?"

Bitingly, Wally snapped back, "You have to earn it first."

He wasn't prepared for Patrick to start laughing. Wally turned back towards the hero and watched as the man doubled nearly over, laughing. Unwillingly, Wally felt his own lips twitch upwards. Patrick really did have a contagious laugh.

Once the laughter died down, Patrick placed his hand flat on the glass like Uncle Barry had, his voice soft with hope, "Thank you. And, trust me, you'll earn yourself a break. You just have to wait a little more, alright?" Wally nodded.

Plastic Man went out the same way the others did and Wally let himself really slump down this time. He got his back into a corner and his knees drawn up to his chest before Red Arrow came around the corner. Rolling his eyes, Wally called out, "Are you guys on some sort of rotation?... The last one out goes and taps you on the shoulder and is like, I'm done. Your turn now! Because if that's not what's going on, then there's some ridiculously awesome timing skills going on…. Then again, the magazines always say that superheroes have the best timing – showing up at the nick of time and all that – so maybe you guys practice awesome timing. Is that, like, a skill you guys have to learn when you start becoming a hero, or is it just a natural thing that happens to all heroes?"

He opened his mouth to say something else, but Roy snapped, "Shut up." Wally reeled back into himself a little bit. There was a lot more venom in Roy's voice than there had ever been. Even when they'd first met and Wally was stealing from him or later that night when Roy found him again, Red Arrow hadn't had this much venom in his voice. It was kind of disconcerting.

Wally wet his lips slightly before talking again, "Are you here to fight with me too? Or maybe give me another lecture. I got a fight and a lecture from Plastic Man. And I'm pretty sure Black Canary hates me now. Or she already hated me. Or something like that. Either way, I'm pretty sure she hates me. I think Batman likes me though. We had a little bonding moment. It was great. I'm also pretty sure that no one saw that bonding moment, so no one'll ever believe me, but I know and he knows and that's all that really matters. Don't you thi-,"

Red Arrow cut him off, slamming on the glass wall, "I said  _shut up_!"

Wally had flinched at the loud bang, unable to help himself. He'd had an emotional last day or so and all of that compounded with the loud bang made Wally feel like he was back with his father again and a bang on glass meant that the football team had just lost and Wally's father was going to come looking for him for something to take the edge of loss off and to burn the frustration off on. Feeling small and hating himself for it, Wally growled sullenly, "Just  _go away_. I don't want to deal with you right now. And I don't care if that sounds childish or if I deserve to be punished with this conversation because I stole an ice cream cone or whatever. Just  _leave me alone_!"

Red Arrow didn't leave Wally alone, but he did stop yelling at him and banging on the glass. Instead, Roy paced in front of the prison cell, glancing sometimes at Wally, but never stopping and never speaking.

At last, Roy said, "You lied to me."

"I lie to everyone." Wally replied tiredly, head back against the wall so he could stare up at the ceiling instead of at Roy.

Roy sighed, "Is anything I know of you real? How long have you been working for the Light through me? How long have you been  _using_  me?"

Wally sighed right back, eyes slipping closed, "I never understood that. Why do people ask if anything they had was real? Of course it was real. It might be my job to befriend you. It wasn't, but it might be. Who cares? If I befriend you, I still care about you. And I never lied when I said that I did genuinely enjoy being a criminal informant. If I had been assigned to befriend you or if I became friends with you the way I did, then I'm still your friend and I still respect that."

"How am I supposed to believe that?" Roy asked bitterly, "You said it yourself: you lie. You lie and you like and you lie. Do you even know what the truth is anymore?"

Wally answered quietly, "Never inside. I didn't lie in my heart."

There was a slumped, defeated sound in Roy's voice when he responded a few beats later, "I guess that'll have to be good enough. You're too hard to stay mad at. Anyone ever tell you that?"

Wally chuckled weakly, "They normally tell me the opposite, actually. I'm told even my face angers people. It's just part of my charm."

Roy snorted, "Charm. I think you're using the wrong word there. Repulsion factor might work a little better."

"So cruel. You wound me." Wally cried out, gripping his chest dramatically. He gasped out, though, at the sudden stab of pain when he did that. Right. He'd forgotten about the ribs and they apparently did not appreciate that. At all.

"You okay Momentum?" Roy called out gruffly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just not quite used to long lasting injuries anymore." Wally said, wincing again as he repositioned. He'd been doing fairly well at ignoring the pain, but now that it flared back up, it wasn't going to be ignored.

Roy questioned sharply, "Anymore?"

Wally rolled his eyes, "I lived on the streets for, how many years? The answer is more than one. People aren't so nice to homeless teens. Especially the metahuman ones. I got pretty used to long lasting pain, even though I heal fast. If they keep beating you, the pain keeps lasting."

There was a long pause where Wally wondered if he'd broke the moment with his comment before Roy said gruffly, "Wimp. You shoulda just beat them up."

Wally huffed out a laugh. Roy returned one before commenting seriously, "I'm going to be here with you and the Team while you're under house arrest here. I'm not going to let you escape, but I won't let them be unnecessarily cruel to you either. Despite the fact that you lied to me and you used me and betrayed me, you're still my first criminal informant and you're still a friend and I don't want you to be hurt." He paused before adding, "Don't abuse that. My trust isn't given out lightly and I'm hesitant about giving it back to you after you've already betrayed it. So, play nice with the others, yeah? Try to reign in the sarcastic comments and the escape attempts."

"I'll do my best." Wally shrugged, not really committing to anything. How could he? How could he promise to not betray Roy's trust when he knew what he knew about what Roy was? Roy might have tentatively, conditionally forgiven him for what he's done so far, but there was no way he'd forgive Wally keeping that large a secret from him. If he was smart, he'd get it all off his chest now. This was the perfect time to come clean. It'd show his genuine commitment to getting their friendship and partnership back on track.

But it'd also get him in hot water with the Light. They'd be furious if they knew that he'd told their number one, most important mole that he was a clone. So Wally stayed silent and Roy eventually left. He smiled as he rounded the corner and he called back, "I'll tag the next one in, alright?"

Apparently he did tag the next one in because it wasn't long before Robin came swirling around a corner, small cape swishing and fluttering behind him. It wasn't quite as imposing as Batman's – more like a butterfly flapping it's wings than a crow's dark feathers beating against cold, vicious wind. Robin settled himself cross-legged in front of the prison cell and Wally asked, "Gotta sit down to lecture me?"

"Nah, I'm getting comfortable. I'm your watch for the next couple of hours."

"Seriously?" Wally asked incredulously, "I've barely got any room to walk with my legs. I'm  _chained to a wall_. There are like, three different locking mechanisms on the door. I don't doubt that the glass is all kinds of shatterproof. And who knows how thick these cave walls are. And now you're adding a guard to all of that? Overkill much?"

"You've managed to avoid capture for a very long time, Momentum. It's not really all that surprising that we don't want you to escape this time."

"This time?" Wally asked before he realized what Robin was talking about, "Oh, you mean the time when I broke myself and the entirety of the Rogues out of the Justice League's headquarters completely by myself and no one could stop me? That time when I took out, like, four different Justice League members before I even got to the escaping part. I guess you should be worried about me escaping. I am pretty good after all."

"Is that so?" Robin asked, obviously amused.

"That's so." Wally answered firmly.

There was a long, long stretch of time where neither of them said anything. Wally started to fidget. It was weird, his hand were moving in slow motion. Wally sighed, remembering what happened. His powers were gone, but his perception of time wasn't. He'd unconsciously sped up his perception of time as he got bored, but now his body couldn't react to it, so it looked like he was moving in slow motion. That was irritating.

He fidgeted again, pulling slightly at his fingers before he started tapping them against the ground. The tapping starting taking on a meaning: light tap, hard tap, pause, light, hard, light, light, pause, light, hard, light, light, long pause, hard, pause, light, light, light, light, pause, light, light, pause, light, light, light, long pause. Robin asked curiously, "All what?"

Wally jumped, "What?"

"All what? You were tapping Morse code, right? You tapped out the words 'all this', right?" Robin asked, tilting his head and really looking like a bird curiously eyeing a newcomer.

Wally shrugged, "Yeah, I guess. It's just unconscious habit."

"So? All what?" Robin pressed.

Rolling his eyes, but finding the enthusiasm strangely endearing, Wally answered, "'All this happened, more or less'. It's the first line from Kurt Vonnegut's  _Slaughterhouse-Five_."

The mask shifted slightly in surprise and Robin leaned forward, "Were you planning on tapping out the entirety of that book while we were sitting here? Do you seriously  _remember_  that book well enough to do that?"

"Yeah. So what? It's not like it's that special or anything." Wally shrugged, suddenly blushing with the attention. Seriously, what was wrong with him?

Robin shrugged back, "I've never read that book. I'm assuming it's pretty good?"

"Yeah, it's a good one. At least, I like it, but I like a lot of the classics." Wally responded back, feeling a little like he was giving too much away to this stranger, this hero, but also feeling like it'd be alright if he did.

Robin eyed him contemplatively, "What if you told me the story? Like, read the book to me from memory? It'd certainly pass the time faster."

Wally blinked, startled. For a long moment, he couldn't figure out what to say back, but then he answered hesitantly, "Ugh, yeah, I guess. Sure." Robin stared at him expectantly and Wally realized with another blush that Robin was waiting for him to start. Clearing his throat awkwardly, Wally began, "All this happened, more or less."

It was a long, long time later that Aqualad came into the room to find Robin and Momentum pressed back to back with a glass wall between them, both fast asleep. He carefully took a picture and inwardly blamed Robin for this urge to acquire blackmail material.


	35. Civil Conversation

WWWWWW

Wally would forever deny the pang of disappointment that settled under his collar bone when he woke up that morning and it wasn't Robin outside of his glass, staring at him with curious white eye slots. Instead, it was Aqualad, who was possibly the worst person who could have been there first thing in the morning.

Wally groaned and flopped back over, hissing a little bit as his ribs and back protested the night spent on the floor. Were his ribs seriously not healed yet? This was getting ridiculous! Aqualad broke through the silence that had settled, "Are you awake, Wallace West?"

 _That_  woke Wally up. He carefully rolled over and glared at Aqualad, "Uh uh, nope. Not happening. Never again.  _You_  do not get to call me Wallace West. To you, I am Momentum. Got it? Momentum. It's not that hard of a name to grasp."

Apparently his scolding only served to amuse Aqualad because his lips curled at the very edges and his eyes grew slightly lighter as he said seriously, "I do believe that I deserve some retribution for the harm you have caused me over our past interactions."

Wally shrugged, "Not my fault you're either the easiest to catch or the one who goes after me first. Get better and I'll stop taking you out."

Aqualad still seemed slightly amused and Wally narrowed his eyes at the Atlantean. There was a challenge waiting there. He would get Aqualad irritated, or, better yet, mad enough to yell at him. There had to be some way to break that perfect calm mask. Wally started to grow more uncomfortable the longer the silence lasted, "So… I'm on house arrest now, right? That means that I can get out of this tiny little cell and start wandering around, right? Because I've gotta go to the bathroom and I needed food, like, six hours ago. Honestly, you guys are just terrible hosts. I feel like if you were better hosts, more villains would give themselves up. Just saying. That's an option."

Aqualad looked at him oddly for a moment, setting to work opening the cell. Wally was so focused on seeing how he opened the cell that he almost missed the hero's words, "You talk when you are uncomfortable, do you not?"

Inwardly, Wally froze. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This due has known him for like a total of twenty minutes. This was not the point in a relationship when you started asking serious questions. Outwardly, Wally lounged back against the wall, idly shrugging a shoulder, "Not particularly. If a topic makes me uncomfortable, I'll stop talking about it." That was the truth, too. He did stop talking about the topic that made him uncomfortable, choosing instead to talk about literally everything else.

There was something in Aqualad's expression that made Wally feel as if he'd seen right through Wally's comment into the truth that laid beneath, but Wally wasn't going to try to confirm that. He'd let sleeping dogs lie for now.

Finally,  _finally_ , Aqualad got the cell door open, stepping through warily. Before he got more than a couple steps in, he stopped, seemingly deciding that he was far enough away. Wally sat up a little straighter, wondering what was going on.

Suddenly, Miss Martian floated up behind Aqualad, a smile on her sunny face, "I'm just here to make sure you don't try to take Aqualad out! But I'm sure you'll be fine!"

Wally laughed, the sound coming out easy and, surprisingly not malicious, "Anything for you, hot stuff. Who would have guessed you were hiding a cute little smile like that?"

She blushed prettily, eyes lowering slightly, but smile never dimming. Aqualad had moved closer during their conversation and was now crouching next to Wally. He clearly projected his movements, showing the scissors and cutting the zip-ties before showing Wally the key and unlocking the cuffs. He did this with Wally's ankles before moving onto the hands. Wally felt some of his anxiety fade away as each cuff hit the floor with a solid clunk.

As soon as all his limbs were free, Wally pulled his feet in towards him and started rubbing one of his wrists with his other hand. He grimaced a little at the pain of slightly chaffed skin. Wally started to calm down now that he was free to move mostly on his own terms. His speed still hadn't come back, but that was okay. He could work with what he had. He just… he just didn't like small cells or being confined to one spot. It was wrong. It felt… there wasn't a word for how perverse it felt to not be able to  _move_  where he wanted to. That was something that was innately feared by a speedster – by someone who could lap the world without breaking a sweat.

And now? Now he was still confined to a space that was inherently tiny to a speedster, but it was better than that cell with limited movement. Most anything was better than that.

Wally glanced up to see that both Team members were watching him wearily, Aqualad's water-bearers in his hands and Miss Martian's hands extended slightly. He rolled his eyes, "You guys know that I don't currently have my powers, right? It's not like I could even do that much to you. So, where are we going? Bathroom or food first? Because both are gonna happen."

Miss Martian frowned slightly, "You are being very rude."

"Yeah, well, you are too. You attacked me, hurt my teammates, kidnapped me, held me in a cell, and are currently keeping me from going… from going back to where I belong." Wally shot back, expression souring. Did they really think he was going to play nice after they captured him like some wild animal? Seriously? If they had really thought that, then they were stupider than he'd thought.

An equally sour voice called out from the side of the hallway, "Maybe if you hadn't broken the law on multiple occasions we wouldn't have to arrest you."

"Was that an arrest?" Wally questioned the female archer, glaring fiercely at her, "Because I don't remember hearing my rights. Or being charged with a crime. Or hearing any sort of reason as to why I was targeted for arrest in the first place."

"Yeah right," Artemis snorted, "Like you weren't out there with other incredibly well-known supervillains about to steal something."

Wally's jaw clenched slightly, but he kept up the verbal banter, "We were just dressing up like villains and you have zero evidence proving that we were about to commit a crime. People dress up like the Joker every Halloween and I don't see them getting arrested. Besides, you sure seemed to have some sort of beef against the one dressed like Sportsmaster. And the other time you had a problem with the one dressed like Cheshire."

She rolled her eyes and growled, "You can drop the pretenses. We know that that was Cheshire and Sportsmaster and we know that you're Momentum. Denying isn't going to get you anywhere,  _Wally_."

Wally stalked forward, startling the other two into flanking him, Miss Martian eventually floating to put herself slightly between the blonde archer and the ginger speedster. Wally snarled, "I've said this to Fishboy over there and I'll say it to the rest of you:  _don't call me Wally_. I am  _Momentum_  to you. Got it?"

"Sure thing, Wally." Artemis responded with a flip of her huge, long ponytail.

Forgetting where he was, who he was with, Wally lunged forward. He wasn't sure what he was planning or what he was going to do with her, but he didn't like her attitude. He didn't like these people calling him Wally so casually. That was his  _name_. It was one of the few things that was his and had always been his and he wasn't going to let these  _heroes_  sully it on their tongues.

Before he could attack her – wrap his hands around her throat or just out and out punch her, girl or not – there was something slamming into his neck, sending bolts of electricity through him. Luckily, the arrow taser only lasted a few seconds. Still, it left Wally gasping and scrabbling to pull the arrow away from his skin.

After a few seconds of futilely twitching his fingers at the arrow, a gentle hand pulled it off, helping him to his feet in one move. Wally blinked up at the tall figure of Roy. Red Arrow was frowning at him, "We literally just had a conversation about this last night. You cannot tell me that you've forgotten our conversation. Remember the part where you said you'd try your best to reign in the sarcastic comments and the escape attempts? You've been out of your cell for, what, two minutes? Less? And I'm already having to tase you."

"You really, really didn't need to tase me." Wally grumbled.

"Yes, I really, really did. Consider it payback." Roy answered easily. Wally swore at him under his breath. Roy rolled his eyes and asked, "So what was it that set you off so early on?"

"Her!" Wally said, glaring at the female archer. He'd caught a glimpse of a completely startled and unprepared expression on her face just before he'd been tased, so he still counted the experience as a success. Wally continued, "And, you know what, him to!" He pointed at Aqualad who blinked and tilted his head to the side inquiringly. Wally threw his hands in the air, "The only nice one is the Martian! Tell the others to call me Momentum. They don't get to call me by my name."

Roy raised an eyebrow, visible through the mask, before saying curiously, "Hate to break it to you, but you don't have a lot of rights here. Like it or not, we can call you whatever we want. But I'll spread the message…. Didn't take you as being so strongly opinionated on what people called you."

"Yeah, well, there are some things that irritate me and that's one of them. I don't call you by your name, you don't call me by mine. Got it?" Wally growled.

Roy sighed, massaging his temple, "Got it. Come on, we better get to the kitchen for breakfast."

Miss Martian shot straight into the air, crying out, "My pancakes!"

Roy shook his head, "Luckily Zatanna and Robin are in there with the pancakes otherwise we'd been eating charcoal again this morning."

"It is sweet that she tries to cook for us, though." Aqualad responded, watching the spot where Miss Martian had disappeared off to. The four left behind started walking at a more leisurely pace towards the kitchen. Roy was on Wally's right side and Artemis was on his left. Aqualad was slightly behind and to the side of him, almost between Wally and Roy, but a little too far back to be quite there. Roy and Aqualad struck up a conversation, but Artemis and Wally were silent. There was nothing for them to say to each other.

When the finally reached the kitchen, it grew silent too. Robin was just as cheerful and lively as he'd been sitting in front of Wally's cell the night before, but he was staying silent, a curl to his lips like he knew something that the rest of them didn't know and he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever known. Zatanna was a more somber kind of silent, but it was obvious that she was prepared to try to act nicely. There was a set to her expression like she was trying to show that she was happy, but she was actually fighting against a frown. It was the thought that counts, right? The other one, Superboy, was definitely not smiling. He had a deep-set scowl on his face as he stared intensely at Wally. The speedster was tempted to ask if the clone knew that his face would get stuck that way if he kept scowling like that, but figured that he should lay low for a little while after that scene in the hallway.

Miss Martian was the only one moving around, bustling from one side of the kitchen to the other as she filled up plates and set them out in the living room area slightly kitty corner to the kitchen. There seemed to be specific people who usually sat in each spot because each plate was filled to a different amount and, occasionally, with different things. The largest plate was sat on a coffee table facing away from the TV and that was where Wally was led, pushed down to sit on the floor to eat his meal.

Once everyone had settled in their chosen spots, Zatanna spoke up, "I'm sure you already know who each of us are, but I'm going to go ahead and introduce us anyways." Wally held back hiss acerbic comment and allowed her to introduce the Team.

When she finished, she looked at him expectantly and he rolled his eyes and responded, "I'm Momentum. Ta-da." There was a slightly hurt and a little bit irritated expression on her face, so Wally added, "I really think that would have been more spectacular if you'd have introduced me. Everything's better when introduced by such a gorgeous young woman." It was kind of amusing how quickly her blush traveled across her cheeks.

"You're such a perv." Artemis grumbled from the sofa she was sharing with Zatanna and Robin (although Robin only took up the arm of the chair so the other two had room to spread out).

"Do you hear what she's saying about you?" Wally asked, turning to Zatanna. He shook his head in mock disbelief as he said, "She's saying that the only reason someone would complement you was if they were a pervert. Such a cruel friend."

"Oh my  _god_." Roy said loudly, interrupting anything Artemis might have said in return, "What is your problem with each other? I mean, I don't particularly like Artemis either, but even I'm not that bad. Have you guys had a single conversation where you didn't fight?" Wally and Artemis looked at each other, both remembering a scene that will forever haunt their nightmares: Roy and Cheshire kissing during a battle. They had had a civil conversation after that, but… that really didn't bare thinking about. Wally shivered a little bit at the memory.

Robin honest to goodness  _cackled_  in response, sending another shiver up Wally's spine at that horrible noise before he said, "I have to know what that conversation was about. You two have had a civil conversation. I have to know."

"You really don't want to." Artemis said, pointedly not looking in Roy's direction.

Wally nodded emphatically, "For once, I actually agree with her. You  _really_  don't want to."

Roy sat forward, "Wait, now I want to know too."

"No." The two said in unison, glancing at each other, startled.

Aqualad said calmly from his seat, "Perhaps if you shared this information with us, we would be able to create a better environment for the group and would be able to prevent a situation like that of this morning outside of the cell."

In the background, Wally heard Robin inquiring about what happened this morning, but he was locked in a silent debate with Artemis. Were they going to tell them what happened? Or would they keep that horrible scene out of the others' nightmares? As one, they came to a consensus.

Artemis closed her eyes and said, "Alright, I'll tell you. But, trust me when I say that this situation will not be recreated in order to create a happier environment or whatever. I don't think I could ever bare to see that again." She paused and everyone leaned forward in anticipation, "The only civil conversation we have ever had was when we commiserated together over the horrifying sight of Cheshire and Red Arrow… kissing."

There was a long, long pause of silence before Robin was sent into a fit of cackles, rolling onto his back on the couch arm and somehow not falling off. Roy, from his place on the ground next to Wally, went beet red, expression morphing into one of absolute horror. He hissed to Wally, "You two  _saw that_?"

"Unfortunately." Wally nodded. Roy groaned and put his head in his hands, ears reaching the same red color as his face.

Miss Martian was squealing and asking something about if that meant they were true star-crossed lovers or something and Zatanna was almost as red as Red Arrow. Superboy was tilting his head and squinting at Red Arrow like he couldn't quite figure him out. Aqualad simply responded, "Congratulations on finding a mate." Before he went back to peacefully sipping his orange juice.

Aqualad's comment (and he knew exactly what had happened, but made the comment anyways, the evil little bugger) sent Robin into another fit of hysteria and sent Miss Martian clapping in joy. At this point, Zatanna and Artemis had started laughing, leaning into each other and trying not to upset their food. Red Arrow had slunk onto his back, covering his face with his hands and moaning as if he were in physical pain.

Watching the group fall into laughter and giggles (and, in Superboy's case, confusion), Wally couldn't help the small laugh that came out himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm bad at this. Enjoy the double update!


	36. For Training

WWWWWW

After the laughter fest that had come out of breakfast, Wally was lead to the bathroom, Aqualad and Roy standing outside the door the entire time, talking quietly enough that they'd be able to hear if he tried to do something. What they thought he was going to do was beyond him because Wally had looked all over and there was no way to escape that bathroom that he could find. Or, at least, that he knew that he would be successful with. He was sure he could get up into the air vents, but that was hardly going to be successful. The two outside would definitely hear it and even if they didn't, there was no way he'd be able to get out of the hideout before they noticed he was taking too long and realized that he'd escaped out the vent system. Wally had no doubts that Robin would be able to get him out of the vent system before he escaped. That one was sneaky.

So, Wally peacefully went to the bathroom and came out scowling. They thought they were so clever. They wouldn't think that when Wally managed to escape.

Roy stretched and asked Aqualad, "What are we doing now?"

"I believe that Black Canary has arrived for training." Aqualad answered.

Wally groaned, "Seriously? It had to be her?"

Roy raised his eyebrows at Wally, poking him lightly in the back to get him to start moving in the right direction, "What do you have against BC?"

"She hates me." Wally confided miserably, momentarily forgetting that Aqualad was there. For the moment, it just felt like he was back in that old warehouse with Roy and they were talking as they practiced shooting a bow and arrow.

"She doesn't hate you." Roy said, mouth curled like he was holding in a laugh.

"That's what you think, but she hates me!" Wally said, glaring at his friend.

Roy nodded sagely, "If she does hate you – which she doesn't – then it's probably because you did something rude and obnoxious which is the usual reason people hate you."

"People don't hate me. According to Mirror Master, I'm too adorable to hate." Wally said, turning to make puppy dog eyes at Roy. Roy just rolled his eyes and shoved at Wally until he stopped, laughing slightly.

Aqualad's voice burst the bubble of happiness that had been growing, "It is nice to see a villain and a hero get along so well."

"Yeah, well, don't expect it to be happening with you Fishboy." Wally shot out mulishly. Roy sighed from next to him.

Aqualad didn't seem concerned by it, though, just commenting mildly, "Are nicknames not a sign of camaraderie and friendship?"

Wally glared at him, "Not always. Sometimes people do it just to be cruel."

"I am glad that this is not one of those times, then." Aqualad said, lips curving up into a small, gentle smile before he announced, "I must retrieve something from my room. I will meet you in the training room." He was gone before Wally could get another comment in.

Wally glared out at the spot Aqualad had disappeared off to, muttering, "That's  _not_  what just happened."

"What's your problem, Wally?" Roy asked suddenly.

"Don't call me Wally." The speedster answered irritably. Roy glared at him until he capitulated, "I don't have a problem. This is just how I act with new people."

"That's not how you acted when I met you." Roy said.

Wally frowned, "Yeah it is. I acted worse than that in that hotel room."

"I mean after. In the alleyway." Roy clarified.

"First of all, that doesn't count because it's wasn't my first meeting with you. Second of all, that was extenuating circumstances. I had just screwed up my first hit with the Rogues and had been certain that they wanted me to leave because I wasn't worth anything to them anymore. I was emotionally compromised." Wally said, rambling towards the end.

Roy rolled his eyes again, "It wasn't because you were 'emotionally compromised' or whatever. You acted like a douche in the hotel because you were trying to show yourself off as a villain. You didn't act like a douche in the alleyway because you weren't trying to put on a front."

Wally scowled at Roy, "Being a villain is not putting up a front. And trust me, when the Rogues originally kidnapped me out of an alleyway, I acted exactly the same to them. I acted like that for a while. I'm just a naturally rude person. Deal with it."

"That's the thing," Roy pointed out, "You aren't a naturally rude person. I don't think you ever were, but if you had been, then the Rogues already fixed that. You aren't a rude person and you're designing a villain's mask to hide yourself under when you're uncomfortable."

"What are you, my therapist?" Wally asked irritably, "I don't need some poetic waxed about my life or whatever. Here's how this is: I'm a villain stuck in a hideout with a bunch of heroes. You hurt my teammates and you kidnapped me without reading my rights and you won't let me go and my powers aren't working. Maybe I'm secretly a nice little kid at heart, but I think I have the right to be a little irritable." Unbidden, his mind flashed back to Patrick telling him that he didn't have the right to get what he wanted because he hadn't earned it yet. He stubbornly pushed the memory away.

Roy sighed, "There's no need to get so defensive. This isn't an attack. This is a concerned friend trying to help. At this point, I'm the only one in here who trusts you, so getting mad at me isn't really an option."

"I don't need someone to coddle me! I don't need someone to trust me! Besides, you shouldn't trust me. I'm going to escape. Don't even pretend that I won't because I'm going to, no matter how wonderful you think your security is. You don't control me and you don't make my decisions." Wally snapped, glaring straight ahead rather than looking at Roy's expression.

He could hear the raised eyebrow in Roy's voice when the hero responded, "Alright, I'll back off. Just... we're trying our best here, Momentum. We're trying to not ruin you by throwing you into Belle Reeve with the lunatics and the truly evil people. You have a chance here and I'm just saying that I think you should take it." He paused, but Wally kept mulishly glaring away from him. Roy sighed again and said, "That's all I had to say. Take it or leave it. Besides, we're here."

Apparently Wally had been so focused on looking everywhere except Roy that he hadn't actually seen where they were. Kind of ironic, huh? He focused on his surroundings and whistled slightly, but didn't comment otherwise. He was currently Not-Talking to Roy and that was that. He didn't care how childish it made him look. He'd been denied the chance to be a child, so he was just making up for lost time.

Most of the other little heroes were gathered there, Aqualad and Robin being the only ones missing. At least, that was what Wally had thought until he saw the shadows shift in the corner and realized that Robin had been standing there the whole time. For someone with such a bright suit, the kid could hide in the shadows quite well.

Aqualad and Black Canary came in at the same time, strolling up to the center of the training room. Roy deposited Wally on a bench in the corner and told him to stay there before going to join the rest of the group. Wally watched as they all moved into stretches, making sure that they wouldn't hurt anything training.

The image kind of reminded him of training with the Rogues. They were like this. Everyone picked their favorite spot in the room and started doing whatever stretches they wanted while Wally, easily finished before the others, was vibrating in impatience. Eventually Len would call a stop to the stretching and they would pair up completely randomly. The only rule for pairing up was that you can't have paired up with them in the past two days of training. Then the pairs would pair up with another pair and there'd be a sort of battle royale between the pairs. The winners of each pair up would face each other and the pair that won that round squared off against each other. Three days a week they were allowed to use powers and weapons, but the other four they just had to use their brains and fists. Of course, there were times that Mark or Wally would accidently use their powers, but it all worked out in the long run.

After that, they'd always move onto group battles. James and Wally would set up a veritable jungle of obstacles on the training floor and Hartley would design enemies through a program. Those enemies would be projected onto the obstacle course that James and Wally designed. There were days where they did evasion and days where they practiced tailing and days where they tried fighting the holograms. When they weren't doing that, they were getting lectures from the other members of the group. Len would lecture about having showy crimes without being tacky and Mick would lecture about the best times to use firepower. Sam would lecture about distraction techniques and Mark would talk about famous heist techniques. Digger liked to do his presentations on how to make anything into a weapon and coming up with last minute schemes. Hartley did his on how to utilize technology. James taught them about the way math factored into heists and Wally always talked about the use of chemically based weapons and gadgets.

Training with Cheshire had been completely different. It had always just been the two of them and the pace she'd set had been completely brutal. Breaks were short or non-existent and there was no observing others. Lessons with her were focused entirely on being concise and staying hidden when pulling a job. It was never easy going, and it was always hard work. There wasn't a set schedule, just working on mastering something before moving on once that had been achieved.

The training that he was watching the mini heroes do was something of a mixture between the two. Black Canary was constantly observing them, moving between them and adjusting stances here and explaining things differently there. The members were paired off against each other, obviously familiar with the partner they found themselves with. Occasionally, she would stop the group and demonstrate something new for them to go over. It wasn't the brutal pace that Cheshire had set up, but it wasn't as easy-going as the Rogues had either. For a brief moment, Wally wondered what it would be like to join them.

He scowled at himself for the thought. What was he thinking? There was no way they were going to let him train with them. That was just stupid. Why would he even want to train with them? He needed to be focusing on getting out of this place, not watching them train like an idiot. Of course, there was always the fact that if he watched them, then he'd learn some of their moves, but escaping took priority over that. It would always take priority. He was stupid for getting confused about it momentarily.

Black Canary's voice broke him out of his reverie, calling out, "Momentum. You have had some hand to hand training, correct?"

"Not really your business." Wally answered easily, not even shifting. He could hear Roy's annoyed huff even from where he was sitting.

Black Canary's smile was wicked when she sent back, "I think it is my business. You have had some hand to hand training,  _correct_?"

"Look, lady, I don't care what you think is your business. This ain't it. Leave me alone." Wally responded, scowl overtaking his features.

Black Canary's smile was more than wicked and a little cruel when she responded sweetly, "Alright, I'll leave you alone. Red Arrow, Aqualad? Would you two be so kind as to escort Momentum back to his cell and chain him back up? He wants to be alone right now."

Wally shot to his feet, eyes widening slightly as Roy and Aqualad shrugged and started walking towards him. He growled out, "Alright!  _Yes_ , I've had hand to hand training. Why does it even  _matter_?" His fists were clenched, and he was fighting the temptation to bare his teeth slightly.

"It  _matters_  because I expect some respect around here. I worked hard to get to where I am today and you will  _not_  call me  _lady_ with that tone. Is that understood?" Black Canary said back, steel lining her words. Wally didn't answer and Black Canary's back straightened in challenge, "Here's how this works: we don't have to let you wander around the Team's headquarters. We could very easily leave you back in that cell where you don't have a chance of escape and where you'll, as a speedster, be completely miserable. You  _are_  going to treat me and the Team and any other person who comes through here with  _respect_  because we are actually doing you a kindness right now. So unless you want us to take that kindness away, you  _will_  be polite back to us. Is  _that_  understood?"

Wally accepted the challenge, taking a threatening step towards the older female hero and growling, " _Here's_  how this works: I don't care what you do with me because I'm going to escape anyways. You think I can't get out of that cell? You're wrong. And you know what? You won't put me back in that cell anyways. You see, I've got a theory. I think you want something from me.  _That's_ why you're 'doing me a kindness'. You just want me to do something for you or tell you something. Now, let's see. You probably don't want me to do something because I honestly can't think of something you'd need me to do that someone else couldn't do. So that means that you want information. What information would be so important that you'd risk the safety of your precious little Team and risk the chance of me escaping?" He pretended to think for a moment even as his soul died a little at the thought of being stuck back in that cell. He continued once he assured himself that everyone was watching, "Oh, I know! You want to know who the mole is."

Zatanna sucked in a gasp at his words, eyes widening at the implication. Robin's hand moved slightly to the baton strapped to his thigh and Artemis's fingers tightened into fists. Miss Martian was glancing around with worried eyes, lip pulled in between her teeth. Superboy's grounding teeth could be heard from where Wally was standing. Roy and Aqualad had gone stiff, throats working.

The only one who seemed unmoved was Black Canary who stared at him with the loose, easy stance she'd had the entire time, "That is one of our goals. We want to know who the mole is. We want to know what the Light's endgame is. Most importantly, though, we want you to trust us. That's why we haven't pushed for answers and that's why we're willing to trust you to not escape. If you can't behave, though, I will put you back in that cell for the rest of the day. I won't have these kids be hurt because they're willing to play nice and you aren't."

Wally's head was reeling. Were they serious? Better question, were they out of their minds? Which idiot decided that this was a good game plan? Then again, it was probably Uncle Barry or Patrick. The two of them both seemed like that kinds of idiots that liked him enough to think that this was actually a good idea. They were  _trusting him_  in the hopes that he would out of the blue start trusting  _them_? And all before the Light put their big plan into action? This reached whole new levels of moronic that Wally actually had a difficult time processing.

Besides, Wally knew that none of them actually trusted him. The only one who was close to trusting Wally was Roy and Wally would never fully trust him back because he was, in the end, just a clone being used by the Light. Which was something that the Team wanted to know. Which was something that Wally could never tell them. Even if he didn't tell the heroes what the Light was planning and just told them what Roy was, then the Light's plans would be ruined. How could he face the rest of the villain world if he betrayed the Light? How could he face Cheshire? Or Icicle Jr.?

Wally's voice was still in a low growl when he said, "I will never tell you the Light's secrets. I don't care what you do to me to get them out, but this stupid trying to get my trust idea won't work. You're just wasting time at this point."

Roy's voice was thick with anger and some other emotion when he snarled, "Idiot! Are you  _trying_  to get us to hurt your or something? What happened to the kid who told me that he might enjoy stealing, but he still wants to help people? What happened to him?"

"He changed." Wally snapped, eyes flashing dangerously, "I'm a villain. That's all I am. That's all I'm ever going to be." Roy's jaw clenched before he stalked out of the room, leaving only silence in his wake.

Black Canary watched Wally with impossibly sad eyes and said, "The rest of you, please escort Momentum back to his cell. Start a guard rotation again. We'll see if he's more willing to work with us in the morning." And with that, Wally was led back to that hated cell.

LLLLLL

Len glared critically at the group that Wally had left with. Sportsmaster had an icepack against his wrist, the appendage cradled carefully in his lap. Cheshire's hair looked like a bird's nest and there was a smudge of blood on the cheek of her normally pristine mask. Icicle Jr. looked to be the worst out of them. There were friction burns on his cheekbone and forehead and there was a bandage taped around his head. His eyes were ringed with dark exhaustion and two of his fingers were taped together, one of them already purpling and swelling. The stiff way he held himself showed that there were some broken bones in there as well. His mouth was drawn with pain and his eyes looked dead.

Len drawled, "Let me get this straight: Momentum seemed to be unable to extract himself from the fighting and keep up with you once you run, so you left him, one of the most informed members of the Light, to be captured by the enemy. Does that about sum it up?"

Sportsmaster glared through the screen at the leader of the Rogues, but it was Ra's al Ghul from the other screen who answered, "I believe that Momentum will be able to take care of himself. He seems a very capable young man." They were in a three-way conference with Wally's team on one screen, the leaders of the Light on another screen, and the Rogues on the third.

Sam spoke next, drawing the group's attention to him, "And why, exactly, was it believed that Wal – that Momentum wouldn't be able to keep up with you when you escaped? Was he injured?"

Len watched as Cheshire's body seemed to shift slightly in the direction of the Light's screen, mentally thinking that he should thank her at some point for that hint. Len asked, "Or was there something else? Something that went wrong with how the mission was planned?"

Luthor's expression was flat, but there was some sort of hidden fury locked in those eyes that Len was surprised the man was allowing them to see. Luthor normally did his best to lock all of his actual emotions in when around other people. Luthor said monotonously, "That mission is none of your concern. You only need to know where the mission is and how long it is supposed to take. Any other details are not a part of our agreement."

Len smiled sharply, "What agreement? Face it, you don't have the kid anymore. Without Momentum you don't have any bargaining chip. You can deal with the Team by yourself now that you've lost one of your best agents."

Queen Bee purred curiously, "You don't seem particularly concerned by this turn of events."

Hartley barked out a laugh, "That's just because he's better at hiding how he feels than your leader over there."

Savage growled at them, "Luthor is  _not_  our leader. We are all in equal places of power on this board." Hartley just stared at him with raised eyebrows.

Luthor hissed at them, "If that is how you feel, then  _fine_. If you are seen back at the Light compound, you will be killed on sight.  _When_  we get Momentum back, you will  _not_  be allowed to see him ever again."

"Just ya watch, we'll get'm back before ya even get close." Digger snarled. The Light promptly cut their screen out of the conversation. Len figured that was probably for the better.

Before the others could cut their screen out and end the conversation, though, Len said, "Not quite yet. I've got a few questions for you."

"Our bosses just made it real clear that you're not welcome. We won't be answering any questions." Sportsmaster sneered.

Cheshire gave off the impression of rolling her eyes as she said, "Ignore that idiot. What questions?"

Len jerked his head towards the still silent and unmoving Icicle Jr., "The kid okay?"

"I'm fine." Icicle Jr. answered. His expression didn't change much except to become a little more thunderous. Ice gathered at his fingers and the breath of the other two started puffing out into the air. Before anyone said anything, Icicle Jr. got ahold of himself and reigned his powers back in, clenching his fists and closing his eyes.

"Well, that answers my first question." Len said mildly before turning towards Cheshire, "What really happened? How did the Team know where to find you?"

"Plastic Man. He betrayed the Light." Cheshire answered easily.

Mick looked up, grunting, "Who's  _Plastic Man_?" He said the name with such confusion and disdain that even Len felt a little impressed. It almost sounded like Mick actually didn't know who Plastic Man was.

"He's our next mission. We're to find him and Wally. I hope you won't get in our way." And with that, Cheshire cut off communication, leaving Len scowling. He'd been leading her towards explaining whatever it was that allowed the little leaguers to capture Wally since Plastic Man hadn't been at all helpful in answering that, but apparently not. Cheshire was too good at this, too used to this life.

Sighing, Len ran a hand through his hair. It just wouldn't stop bothering him. How could the Team have caught Wally? The only thing he could ever think of working would be to have another speedster there, but the Flash wasn't there from what Len could tell. Other than that… maybe if they'd used one of his teammates against him? But then why would they just take him and not the other teammate? It didn't make sense. What had happened to Wally?

"You're thinking too loud. Shut up." Mick said, settling down next to Len. The rest of the Rogues had scattered throughout the hideout. Len knew that they were all just trying to decompress and come to terms with the fact that their newest member was in enemy hands.

Sending Mick an annoyed look, Len grumbled, "You're being too obnoxious. Shut up."

"Not as obnoxious as you." Mick retorted, idly flicking a flame on and off with one of his many igniters. This one was one of the first Len had ever seen him with, one of the few that had survived their time as the Rogues.

Len sighed before musing quietly, "Do you remember when we formed the Rogues?"

"Don't you mean  _you_  formed the Rogues?" Mick grunted.

"No, no. When  _we_  formed the Rogues. We did it together. The rest of the team knew that it was us in charge even if they voted me in as leader. You're second-in-command. You're the acting captain in my absence." Len trailed off, staring at the blank screen, wishing Wally was just home and they could wipe their hands of this whole Light mess.

Mick sighed, "We're going to get him back."

"In what shape?" Len asked.

"It doesn't matter." Mick answered firmly.

Len finally turned to face his friend, "How does that not matter?"

"Think about the way we found the kid. He was dying in an alleyway. His leg was broken in three spots. His ribs were broken and bruised. He was injured all over. He hated people and completely distrusted us. And then we got him to start working with us and start opening up to us and start trusting us. If we can do it once, we can do it again." Mick answered.

Len didn't comment on how that was one of the few times Len has ever heard him string more than a sentence or two together and he didn't comment on how Mick's own voice was dubious as if he didn't believe the things he was saying. Instead, he just nodded and said, "Together. As a team."


	37. Black Canary

DDDDDD

Dinah sighed a scrubbed a hand over her face, watching the feed that showed Wally's cell. Sharp eyes noted the way he paced as far as he could, fingers clenching slightly every time he got to the end of his veritable leash. So far, he and Superboy hadn't made any conversation, simply sitting in silence as the day wore on. She could see Wally getting more and more irritated – more and more worked up – as time went on. Being in that cage really was bothering him.

Dinah barely started when a low voice loomed out of the gloom, "I had heard that you put him back into his cell."

"Robin tell you? Or did you see it on one of your non-existent cameras?" Dinah asked mildly as Batman settled into the chair next to her.

Batman didn't acknowledge the dig about the cameras, simply saying, "Robin seemed rather distressed at the idea of Momentum back in his cell."

"Of course. Wally is his friend. It must be hard for Robin to reconcile the friend he's been texting with the person he's seeing here." Dinah reminded gently, sitting back and rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her palms, stretching lightly at the same time.

"I just wish he hadn't made such good friends with a villain." Batman sighed, wearily scrubbing at his chin.

Dinah laughed lightly, "It's not any different from your on-again, off-again fling with Catwoman."

Batman twitched slightly and said, "That's different. That's a relationship and those are far more complicated than a friendship like Robin and Momentum have."

"Hmm." Dinah hummed noncommittally, thinking about the looks Robin had cast Wally throughout training. She thought that maybe there was something more than friendship there. She'd even made a bet on it with Ollie. She wasn't, however, going to mention that to Batman who was more protective than anyone could possibly imagine. She wouldn't want to be Wally when Batman decided that he needed to give the ginger speedster a shovel talk.

Batman changed the topic back, "We need to get information from Momentum. He won't talk if he's locked in that cell."

"I'm obviously not going to keep him in there." Dinah said, mildly offended. Batman simply raised an eyebrow and stared back challengingly. Dinah sighed and leaned her palm on one hand, "Look, I know it seems counterproductive, but trust me, it'll work. Wally doesn't trust kindness. Exorbitant kindness by people he considers his enemies would only serve to make him raise his guard, make him more suspicious. We won't get anywhere if he's got his guard up. So I need to treat him like a criminal and gradually soften as time goes on. Normally, I would need a month, maybe two for something like this, but I understand that we're on a time limit and that there isn't much I can really do. That's why I needed to be extreme. It breaks my heart to see him so obviously upset about being in that cell, but it's necessary."

Batman nodded slightly and said, "You're lucky that Flash doesn't have someone on the inside to tell him what's going on. He wouldn't be too happy that you're putting his nephew back in a cell."

Dinah smirked, "That man is too overprotective for his own good. Imagine, though, if Wally had ended up staying with Barry and Iris. He could have been a hero. Then again, he might still be. I only hope we can help him in time."

Batman put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I know you can do it."

Sending a smile at the older man, Dinah straightened and said, "Thanks. I'm going to go down and talk with him now. Let's see how much I can do tonight."

"I'll take over here." Batman said, giving her a nod of acknowledgement. They weren't taking any chances with Wally this time. Not after what he pulled getting the Rogues out of the JL Headquarters all that time ago.

Making her way down towards the cells, Dinah thought to herself. She needed to make Wally see that he didn't need to be so defensive. If she could get him to lower his defenses, then there was a chance that this wouldn't be anywhere near as hard as they thought it would be. But he wouldn't lower them, though. Roy was about the only person he got close around and even then, he would clam up the moment anyone else came into the conversation. They needed to do whatever Roy had done to get that trust. Making a last second decision, Dinah switched tracks and started heading towards the hangar door. Knowing Roy, he'd be out there on the side of the mountain, watching the sea.

And, of course, when she looked, that's where he was. Smiling slightly, Dinah commented, "I remember when you were a kid – well, a younger one at least – and you would always climb up on the roof and watch the sun whenever you and Ollie got in a fight."

Roy's shoulders slumped from their tense position, but he didn't otherwise acknowledge that he'd even heard her. Dinah walked over and sat next to him, "You're upset. Why?"

"Why wouldn't I be upset? Wally… Wally just needs to get over himself! He's being so stupid and irritating! Why can't he see that I'm just trying to help? Why does he need to cop such an attitude about this?" Roy grouched, hunching his shoulders in and glaring out over the ocean.

Dinah laughed. She couldn't help it. Roy growled, "What's so funny?"

Dinah giggled a little bit, leaning against Roy and wrapping her arm around the kid she still considered to be her kid, "You sounded exactly like Ollie."

"I did not!" Roy exclaimed, turning wide, offended eyes towards her.

"You did too." Dinah countered, "Every time you would storm off or he would have to bench you or we found out that you were in the principal's office again, he would say those exact same things. He would pout and mope around and get mad anytime anyone asked about it. He'd say that you just needed to get over it and grow up and stop acting like a little kid and he'd get mad that you wouldn't let him help because he just wanted to help. But you copped an attitude because you thought you needed to be strong and you thought that you needed to be the best at everything. You still think that. And Wally's just like you."

Roy clenched his fists and pointed his vulnerable gaze away from her and proved everything she had just said. Eventually, he blew out a breath and turned back towards her, letting Dinah see him for a moment, "What do I do, then? How do I handle someone like me? Anytime I try to not let my temper get better of me, his gets ahold of him."

Dinah raised her eyebrows, surprised. It seemed like her kid was growing up after all. She had been terrified when she realized that he was leaving home and going off to live and work and fight crime by himself, but there had been no stopping him when he got the idea. She hadn't thought that he was mature enough, ready enough to go off on his own. Apparently, she had been wrong. He was getting along fine. Smiling, Dinah answered, "If he's that defensive, it means that there's something he's trying to protect. There's something about having friends that terrifies him. Figure that out and you'll figure how to talk to him."

"I don't understand." Roy growled, fingernails pressing into his thighs.

Dinah smiled softly in understanding, "You get defensive around new people because you're afraid of losing them. You're afraid of finally letting someone in just for them to leave like everyone else. So, you put up a front, so people won't try to get close. You need to find out why Wally's so defensive."

There was a long moment of silence before Roy cleared his throat slightly and asked, "Did you come here just to talk, or did you need something?"

"I actually did want something." Dinah said. Roy turned towards her and she continued, "How did you get Wally to trust you? How did you get him to be so open with you? You're the only one who he reacts positively to and I want to be able to replicate that."

Roy's eyebrows scrunched together, and his eyes narrowed, "I don't really know. I guess… I guess it's because I never promised him anything. I mean, that's not true. I just… I never made him feel pressured? And I was always as gruff to him as I am to other people. I didn't try to molly coddle him or something. I always made it clear that I was basically using him to help me and that there wasn't going to be any reward or anything. We didn't really click until I started teaching him to use a bow and arrow. That was when we really connected. It was calming, teaching him and watching him improve."

Dinah nodded, thinking to herself. So Wally was defensive because he was afraid of being betrayed. The reason he connected with Roy was because he thought that he was useful to the archer and, as long as he was useful, he wouldn't be thrown out. Sometimes Dinah hated being able to read into things like that. She didn't want to think about the reasons a fifteen year old boy would be so terrified of being thrown out. Dinah momentarily felt a rush of anger at the boy's parents. It was the people like them who beat their kids and left them behind that created villains. Of course, just because someone was abused doesn't mean that they were a villain or a criminal. Someone who became a hero and someone who became a villain and someone who took the middle path who all came from the same background were equally strong for getting through what they had to get through. It would just be nice if there was someone out there to catch the signs of the ones who turn to villainy before they turn. There's always a chance to save someone, but it would be nice to save them before they hurt others in their own self-destruction.

And that's what it was. Wally was self-destructing on the path he was on. With that anger and that drive to prove himself and his superspeed, it was going to be hard to tether him down. Dinah was honestly impressed the Rogues managed to get him to stay as long as they had. Someone like Wally was a free spirit who was meant to roam and discover himself through travel, but he needed someone to go with him. He needed something steady in the whirlwind life he was bound to live. And for a long, long time he didn't have that. For a long time, he didn't have a single constant thing in his life. He had finally seemed to find it with the Rogues, but then the Light came and disrupted that. They took away the corner stone he was just starting to lean on and now there was nothing left.

Dinah was willing to bet anything that Wally blamed himself for the situation that caused him and the Rogues to separate. The boy saw so much fault in himself that it was devastating. Without someone there to constantly tell him that he's okay, that he's strong, that he's a good person, he was going to tear himself apart on the harsh rocks of reality and he'd probably accidently bring other people down with him.

People like Robin and Roy and Plastic Man and Flash and the Rogues. They would all be shattered if he died, if he self-destructed.

Roy's amused voice broke her out of her musings, "You still with me?"

"Don't be cheeky with me, kid." Dinah smirked.

"I'm not a kid!" Roy scoffed.

Dinah laughed, using his shoulder as something to level herself into a standing position, "That's what Wally said when I called him a kid."

Roy chuckled a little bit, "Yeah, he was always touchy about that. He's got a big, tough guy impersonation going on."

"Wonder who that reminds me of." Dinah half joked, half chided him. He sent her a smirk before turning back to look out over the ocean. Dinah went back inside, finally en route to the place she had been going at the start of all this.

It took her longer than it should have to get there. She would never admit it to anyone, ever, but she still sometimes got lost in Mount Justice. She was there all the time and it wasn't particularly maze-like, but she just never got used to the layout. Talk about embarrassing.

Finally, she stopped in the hallway that held the cells. Superboy and Wally were finally talking. Curious, she hung at the edges of the hallway, knowing that Superboy knew that she was there, but also knowing that he'd know better than to reveal her presence to Wally when she obviously didn't want him to know.

Conner was tilting his head curiously, "I haven't learned about hockey yet."

"Dude, seriously? That's a shame. I mean, yeah, it's not that popular of a sport and the stats and all are kind of confusing, but it's a good sport. Captain Cold loved it – shocker, right? – and he made us all watch it once a week. Well, he made anyone who wasn't in the cooler watch it once a week." Wally amended, shrugging afterwards.

Conner squinted at him, "Why would Captain Cold put members of the Rogues in a cooler?"

Wally squinted back at him for a moment before realization lit up his face and he nodded, "Cooler is a slang word for prison. It's not used all that often, honestly. Slammer shows up about as often, so if I say slammer, I mean prison."

"Why do they call it cooler? Prison isn't cool." Conner said, lips turning downwards.

Wally shrugged, "I mean, some people think that prison is cool. Like, you do a stint in prison and it makes you look tougher to your gang friends or whatever. But normally people use the term cooler when they're talking about solitary confinement. Maybe it has something to do with the phrase, 'cool your heels' or something like that? I don't really know – it's a British term. But solitary confinement is where, traditionally, the violent prisoners go so that would make sense."

"What do you mean, traditionally?" Conner asked.

Shrugging a little, Wally answered, "I mean, it's supposed to be for violent inmates, so they don't hurt other prisoners, but it's not always used like that. Sometimes there are guards that aren't as good as they like to claim, and they'll put people in solitary just to mess with them. Solitary is not really the best place to be in prison. You're really alone and that can drive anyone crazy. Sometimes, also, people are put in solitary for their own good. Like, sometimes a cop ends up being a dirty cop – meaning they committed illegal activities most often for local gangs or whatever – and they get sent to jail and the other criminals are like, this guy is the one who put us in here, and they start going down on the guy. The dirty cop would be put in solitary for his own protection so he's not, like, shivved by one of the other criminals."

Conner nodded, something happy in his eyes, "So, you're in the cooler right now?"

The grin that spread out over Wally's face was one of the most adorable things that Dinah had ever seen as he nodded and said, "Yeah, you got it! Good on you, man!"

The two sat in comfortable silence for a beat or two before Conner said softly, "People don't usually take so much time to explain that kind of stuff to me, or they get irritated, or they use other terms I don't know to explain the one I'm asking about. So, thanks… I guess."

"No problem." Wally answered carefully, likely just realizing how friendly that interaction had been.

Before either of them could stick their foot in their mouths, Dinah decided to show herself. Sweeping through the corridor, she announced, "I'll cover him for a little bit if you could go and grab some dinner for yourself before bringing some down to him." It was heartbreaking to see how completely Wally's expression shuttered off at the sight of Dinah. Conner sent a wary glance between the two of them before he nodded and headed off down the hallway.

Wally said stiffly, "Black Canary."

Dinah was tempted to call him by his name, but figured that she didn't want that confrontation at the moment, choosing instead to say back politely, "Momentum."

The silence didn't last long before Wally was breaking it, "Come down here to lecture me again? You can't honestly say that one of the others couldn't come watch me while Superboy was getting dinner."

"I'm not coming down here to lecture you, Momentum." Dinah answered softly. Wally scoffed, but didn't say anything. Dinah resisted the urge to sigh, and said, "I don't think we ever had proper introductions. My name is Black Canary. I watch after and train the kids on the Team. They call me one of their den mothers. I quite like the term actually. I serve as their therapist, too, if something particularly bad happens."

After a second's stare down, Wally clenched his fists and said, "My name's Momentum. I used to work with the Rogues, but then I joined the Light and became a pretty big operative. I worked with Red Arrow as a criminal informant for a little while. I'm not really much good for anything else."

"That's not true." Dinah immediately refuted. Wally glanced up at her with startled eyes, like he hadn't quite expected her to pick up on that sentence. He didn't say anything, just watching her. His eyes were big and green and shadowed and still somehow so bright. Dinah repeated in a softer tone, "That's not true. According to word on the streets, you've been helping some of the other criminals with some chemical weaponry and heist tools. That's something you're good at."

Wally shrugged, looking vaguely uncomfortable, "It's just science. Anyone can do it really."

Dinah smiled wryly and sat on the floor in front of the glass, "Not me. I never could wrap my head around all that science stuff. I know that flowers need water and sunlight to grow and that's all I need. None of that chloroplast stuff or whatever."

Wally gaped at her, settling down in front of her, leaning forward before wincing and sitting back, "Flowers don't just need water and sun! They need proper temperature regulation and the correct type of soil! The water quantity and sun quantity need to be ascertained and measured for optimal growth!"

"Doesn't that just take the magic out of growing flowers?" Dinah asked, eyes shining, "I mean, you have this beautiful life that you create through hard work and dedication and trial and error."

"Science is hard work and dedication! And it ends up better that way." Wally argued heatedly.

"It doesn't have to be better to be beautiful, though. An old, dilapidated, useless bridge can be just as beautiful as a brand-new bridge." Dinah shot back.

Wally tilted his head at her, "Point, but what about the extra beauty of the science? Science is an amazing thing and opens so many other doors, so many other  _worlds_ , so why not have the hard work and dedication and trials and errors  _and_  the science?"

Dinah grinned, "See? You're good for something other than being a criminal or criminal informant. Science is a calling of yours. And don't try to argue that it's common or whatever because what you have is special. It's beautiful just like that science you so passionately talk about."

For a moment, Dinah thought she had broken through, but the hole in his wall was patched up before she could get inside. Wally narrowed his eyes at her, "Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?"

"Why are  _you_  suddenly being so nice to  _me_? I'm treating you the same way I've been treating you. The only thing that's changed is  _your_  attitude." Dinah answered dryly, heart thumping. She'd been  _so close_. She should have known that it wouldn't be that easy. She just wanted to help him. All she wanted was to set this young man back on the right path. From what he's heard from Barry, the only maternal influences Wally had ever had was Iris for a brief, brief period of time, and then Cheshire. If Iris had been with him longer, this would be different, but she wasn't with him long enough for him to really get a sense of maternal love. And Cheshire… that was a whole different can of worms.

Wally stared at her silently and Dinah was struck with how young he looked. It was amazing how much a superhero – or supervillain – suit could age someone. Sometimes it startled her when members of the Team changed into their civvies and she realized that she'd forgotten that they were kids in the heat of the battle, or even in training. Now, Wally just looked like a scared fifteen year old. His frame was stick-thin with defined muscles under the white T-shirt and yoga pants. The mussed hair and bare feet made him seem like he'd just woken up or was just going to bed. The shackles and his wrists and ankles made him seem smaller, swallowed by his confinements. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale and gaunt. There was still a dark bruise settled over his temple, standing out against the pale skin. And his eyes. They were huge and  _sad_  in his face and Dinah just wanted to wrap him up in a big blanket and hug him until he was always smiling that huge smile he had given Conner.

But that wasn't the way life worked. Dinah knew that being that kind to him would only freak him out and shut him off from the rest of them and that was the opposite of what she wanted. At this point, it wasn't even about the information. It was about the scared boy who had the entirety of  _Slaughterhouse-Five_  memorized and who would passionately argue about the wonders of science.

Dinah looked him in the eyes and rested her hand against the glass, "You are  _important_. You might be a villain, but you are still a  _human_  and-,"

She didn't expect him to interrupt, but he did, voice scathing, "I'm a  _metahuman_. I'm not human anymore."

Dinah waited to see if he had anything else to say before she continued, "But you are still a  _human_. When I became a hero, I swore to protect  _humanity_. Like it or not, believe it or not, you are a part of that humanity and I will do  _everything_  in my power to protect you like I swore to."

Wally's fists clenched, and his shackles clinked around his wrists. He insisted, "I'm not a part of that humanity like you seem to believe. I'm a metahuman. That means I lost the right to claim humanity."

Dinah's voice was hard when she said, "Is your Uncle a human? Is he a part of humanity worth protecting?"

"He's worth protecting, but he's not a human." Wally said, voice set. He honestly believed what he was saying.

"And what makes him worth protecting, but not you?" Dinah asked.

"He does good. He's a  _hero._ That's what makes him worth protecting." Wally answered immediately, without hesitation.

Dinah shrugged muscled shoulders, "Some would say you're a hero too. That vigilante couple that Onomatopoeia killed? They had friends, and family. They said that the person who caught him was a hero because now no one else had to go through what they went through and their loved ones got peace."

"That was Red Arrow." Wally threw back.

"That was Red Arrow with your help. You did things that he couldn't do and that was how Onomatopoeia was finally caught. It was your teamwork. You've saved people's lives. I say that's worth protecting." Dinah said softly.

She didn't get a chance to say more – didn't know what else she even would say – before Superboy was back with a huge plate of food for Wally. Wally immediately dropped any hints of vulnerability and made a joke about how he was fungry and then promptly had to explain what that meant. Dinah smiled softly, proud of the progress they'd made, and left the hallway to the two of them.

As she was going back through the hallways, she ran into Robin, who just barely managed to hide whatever he had been messing with before she got a chance to see it. Dinah raised an eyebrow. Robin sent her a blinding grin and said, "'Sup, BC?"

"What are you hiding?" Dinah asked, leaning towards him.

Robin sent her a slightly weirded out look and inched backwards, "Um… I don't know what kinds of things you're seeing, but you might want to get your eyes checked."

"Uh huh. So what are you hiding?" Dinah asked, smile playing at the corners of her lips.

After a few seconds, Robin slumped and held his wrist out in front of her, tapping a few buttons. A holographic display popped up and he pressed another button for it to turn to face Dinah. After another few seconds and another few buttons, the hologram started displaying a video of what was happening in the cells of the Cave.

Dinah gave Robin an unimpressed stare, "Really, Robin? You know you can just go down and talk to him, right? There's no rule that says that there can't be more than one of you down there at the same time."

Robin shifted slightly, raising one shoulder before letting it drop, "I know… I just… It's hard being around him and not… being  _me_."

"Why can't you just be you?" Dinah asked. Jeez, she was really fulfilling her role of therapist today.

Robin frowned, "I can't have him figuring out who I am!"

"Why not?" Dinah asked again.

Robin stared at her like she was crazy, "Are you serious? As much as he's my friend, he's also a criminal! I can't compromise my identity like that!"

Dinah levelled another unimpressed stare at Robin before saying, "That wouldn't compromise your identity. He only knows who Freddie, not your actual name. And you guys have never met without your sunglasses on, right? Artemis has seen you in school and she hasn't even recognized you. What's the chances that this socially stunted criminal teenager would recognize you?"

Robin's jaw worked, and his fingers twitched slightly. Dinah put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I'm not saying you should or shouldn't tell him that you're Freddie. I'm just saying that maybe it's not the end of the world if he finds out who you really are. It's hurting you to stay away, to lie. But I'm not really the person to talk to about this. Go talk to Batman. I bet you he'll say the same thing."

Robin cast her a dubious look and Dinah laughed, "No, I'm serious. I bet you… I bet you ten bucks that he says something with the same general theme of what I said."

Sniffing slightly, Robin said imperiously, "Bet." The two smirked at each other before Robin's smirk fell away a little and he said, "I'm, uh, probably gonna go try to find Batman."

"He was in the surveillance room last I saw him." Dinah said, and Robin nodded to her before walking away. Dinah really hoped that Batman reacted the way she thought he would. Robin and Wally both needed this friendship. There would be a little bit of a struggle while they tried to reconcile the friends they thought they knew with the ones that were in front of them, but she was pretty sure that it would work out in the end. That it would work out for the better.

BBBBBB

Bruce was watching the screen when Dick came to the surveillance room. He cast an appraising eye over his ward, checking for any injuries or other signs of illnesses, despite the fact that he knew that Robin hadn't been patrolling or on any missions since they had captured Momentum. Thankfully (or maybe not, with what it signified), the Light hadn't pulled anything recently other than a nation-wide criminal BOLO on Plastic Man saying that whichever villain found him first would get some impressive benefits. Plastic Man and his girlfriend were currently under the best protection they could get without completely disrupting their lives and drawing attention to them.

When he was finally satisfied that Dick was fine, he looked back up at his ward's face. Dick was biting his lip and worrying at his gloves. Batman asked, "What's wrong?"

Dick answered, "Wally."

With that one word, Batman turned all of his attention to Dick, turning fully away from the computer screen and looking Dick in the eye (well, in the mask). Bruce asked, "Did he do something to you?"

"No." Dick said, glancing off to the side where his attention was caught by the image of Wally in his prison. Bruce made a soft sound to get Dick's attention back. Dick sighed and said, "I want him to know that I'm Freddie."

Bruce froze. He took a second to collect his thoughts before he responded, "That could be dangerous."

"In all the time we've known each other, he's never tried to figure out who I am. Or, if he did try, then he didn't succeed. I don't think that's going to change. I mean, the entire Team knows what I look like in my civvies with those sunglasses. If we're trying to get him to trust us, then we should show him what we show each other." Dick defended, half sounding like he was making this up on the spot and half sounding like he's been planning this out.

Bruce deflated, his fear leaking out of him as he watched Dick fondly. He interrupted his rant, "Robin. Be honest with me. This has nothing to do with getting Momentum to trust you and has everything to do with missing your friend."

Dick nodded hesitantly, as if he thought that Bruce would be mad. Honestly, Bruce was a little irritated. Like he'd told Dinah, he wished that Dick hadn't made such good friends with a villain of all people. But then he remembered how happy he'd been when Dick had told him that he'd been texting someone pretty regularly, playing online games and such with them for a while. Wally might not have the best moral compass, but, for the moment, he wasn't posing a threat to Dick. Of course, the moment that Batman thought that fact was going to change, he'd have the Rogue's under bodily threat and Momentum in a high security prison within a second. No one would hurt Dick on his watch. Not when he could help it.

Bruce sighed and resisted the urge to run his hand over his mask wearily, "Robin, the decision to tell Momentum that you are Freddie is up to you. I can't make that decision for you. But I can say that I fully support it." He hadn't been prepared for Dick's full body slump and the slightly aggravated sigh that he let out. Bruce blinked and asked cautiously, "Is that not what you wanted?"

Dick's head whipped back up and he started waving his hands around, "No, no! That's what I wanted! It's just that Black Canary said that you'd say that and now I owe her ten bucks."

Reeling back slightly, Bruce levelled his best 'Bat Glare' at Dick, "You bet  _against_  me?"

"You're overprotective! I feel justified in my reasonings." Dick defended before his eyes widened and he immediately started backpedaling, "I mean, I know that you really love me and don't want to see me hurt, so you'd do what was best for me and do your best to protect me and I thought that since Wally was a villain that you'd consider him a threat and-,"

He was interrupted by Batman's low chuckle. It was something that he very, very rarely let out when he was in the suit, but this was for a good cause. Dick squaked indignantly, "Don't laugh at me!"

Of course, that only made him laugh harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I'd almost start expecting me to forget for a day or two. Oops. Anyways, just wanted to make sure you guys know: I don't think Black Canary is a rude lady who is purposely antagonizing Wally. I adore BC and this is my interpretation on her character. I swear she's a good person in this!


	38. The Truth

DDDDDD

Dick was… well, nervous didn't quite cover it. He was absolutely terrified. He was going to tell Wally.  _He_  was going to  _tell_  Wally. This was horrible. He couldn't do it. This was going to go so bad and everything was going to be horrible and Wally would never forgive him and they'd never be friends again and Dick was going to die alone without any friends and without  _Wally_  who is all he really needs and –

And he just needed to calm down and go about this rationally. It was okay. Everything was alright. He didn't need to get so worked up about this. It wasn't the end of the world if Wally was too mad to accept their friendship. It wasn't Armageddon if they never talked again. It would just, just suck. A lot, honestly. But that was okay. Because Wally deserved to know. And because Dick really, really wanted his friend back.

After a few more moments of pacing, Superboy stuck his head around the corner, eyes narrowed slightly, "What are you doing?"

Robin froze, "What do you mean?"

"You've been pacing in this hallway for a half an hour now." Superboy answered, voice flat, "It's distracting. Momentum's trying to teach me hockey."

Robin blinked at him and decided to not even question that before asking, "Can you do me a favor?" Superboy nodded and Robin said, "Could you please give Momentum and I some privacy? I want to talk to him about something."

Superboy narrowed his eyes and tilted his head in that completely open, honest way of his before nodding again and stepping out from the bend of the wall, turning back slightly to wave at Momentum and call, "I'll be back in a little bit."

Robin heard Momentum's confused, "Uh… okay? See you then?" Before Superboy left completely, sending Robin a brief, reassuring look. Robin swallowed before nodding to himself and heading into the hallway.

Wally's eyes narrowed when he saw Dick walk into the corridor and Dick had to hold in a sharp breath at Wally's huge green eyes. To be completely honest, Wally looked like he'd spent last night getting hammered before getting into a bar fight. There were dark edges of bruises shading the white of his shirt and there was still the livid bruise on his temple from Artemis's blow. His eyes were shadowed and his face pale, sprinkled freckles a stark contrast against the death pallor of his skin. Dick only realized he'd been staring when Wally asked roughly, "What do you want?"

"What? Superboy gets to learn about hockey and I get this? I'm hurt!" Dick exclaimed, putting a hand over his heart and everything.

Something softened in Wally's harsh, defensive stance, but he didn't shift closer to the glass as he'd been with Superboy and he didn't say anything in response. Dick resisted the urge to fiddle with his cape like he sometimes did when he was nervous.

When Wally spoke again, it wasn't as harsh and biting, "You never answered my question."

Dick sighed, settling himself onto the ground in front of the glass, "I don't want anything, W- Momentum."

Wally snorted, "Yeah, sure. Don't tell me then. But don't expect to get anything either."

"I really don't want anything from you." Dick insisted, "I just… I just wanted to tell you something."

"And what do you think you have to tell me that I'd be interested in knowing? Unless it's a way to escape, then I don't care." Wally answered, but there was something vulnerable tucked away in his eyes that said that he just wanted to  _talk_ to someone and not be left alone in this place that was so strange and so not what he was used to.

Dick really did fiddle with his cape as Wally settled his full gaze on him. After a moment, he just figured that there was really no better way to do this and he blurted out, "I'm Freddie."

Silence.

Complete and utter silence.

It started to drag on, made all the more painful by the fact that Wally was  _never_  silent and always had to have the last word. Dick turned around, using the excuse of switching his mask for his glasses to hide the way his eyes blurred and a lump settled in his throat. He turned around and attempted a smile, "See? It's me. Freddie."

Wally still didn't say anything. He sat down heavily in the corner furthest from Dick and Dick tried to ignore the feeling of something shattering in his chest. Spurred on by how much he hated that silence, Dick started talking, voice slightly raspy from the lump in his throat that just wouldn't go away, "I tried so hard to not lie to you about being a hero. I mean, I never said that I wasn't a hero. So… I technically didn't lie. I didn't want to lie to you more than I already had been. I just… especially after I found out that you were a villain. I thought that there was no way that you'd keep being my friend if I told you that I was a hero, so I was scared and I was stupid. And then you were suddenly just there with Klarion and you were fighting with him and had joined the Light when none of us were looking and I didn't know what to do. And there were so many other things that were happening and I just wanted to make sure that you were safe and I wanted you to leave the Light for so many reasons and I couldn't tell you most of them and I just… You haven't made this easy either! When I found out that you were a villain, I was so mad and I'd felt so betrayed, but… you had no idea that I was a hero. It wasn't a personal insult against me or anything. There was no way for you to know and so I forgave you and just waited for the day that I felt like I could tell you who I am. And now, now-,"

Finally,  _finally,_  Wally cut off his long rant, voice just as hoarse as Dick's, "And now  _what_? We go back to… to… whatever we had before? Is that it? You just want me to ignore… ignore  _this_?"

Dick's fingers dug into his thighs, "I didn't seem to have any problem doing that. You were working with the Light and I never once tried to get information out of you. I ignored the fact that you were a villain with an incredibly dangerous supervillain group that's trying to destroy the world and I just stayed your friend because you needed a friend at that moment and I wasn't going to let that go. I needed a friend too. We were both lying, but it was okay."

Wally's jaw worked, and he said, "You know my real name."

Dick blinked, "Yeah, I do."

"Who's the liar now,  _Freddie_?" Wally asked scathingly.

Dick flinched, "You know I can't tell you my secret identity."

"Can't or won't? I didn't  _want_ to tell you mine! So why can you know mine, but I can't know yours? Oh, right. Stupid me. I'm a  _villain_. I don't get basic rights because I'm just a monster who wasn't good enough to not get caught." Wally hissed, hands clenched into fists and very clearly not moving to wipe away the tears that were welling in his eyes.

Voice low with suppressed emotions, Dick said, "You're  _not_  a monster." Wally scoffed, but didn't say anything, turning his head so Dick couldn't see those big, sad eyes.

Dick sighed, knowing that everything was going wrong, but not knowing how to fix it, "Wally." He ignored the way Wally flinched at the name and kept going, "Red Arrow is the only member on the Team who knows my real identity and I've known him since before I started even being a hero. None of the rest of the people who I trust with my life out in the field know who I am. It's not just… I'm not just keeping it from you."

The red-rimmed eyes turned towards him broke Dick's heart and he struggled to keep his own tears in. This was going so, so wrong. He swallowed and said seriously, "You're still my friend."

Wally shot back, "That makes one of us, at least." It was obvious he'd tried to be malicious, but there was something dark and broken lurking at the edges of his eyes and in the downward turn of his lips that made it obvious that he was only lashing out to protect himself. It broke Dick's heart that Wally felt the need to protect himself from the brightly colored hero.

Swallowing down his heartbreak, Dick asked, "What can I do to convince you? How can I show you that I think we can still have what we used to have?"

"I don't know if you can." Wally said.

"There's has to be some sort of way." Dick argued, passionate in the face of Wally's attempts to distance the situation.

Wally sneered for a moment, anger lighting up his expression before it died away into embers of exhaustion, "Why?"

"Why what? I don't understand." Dick said, desperate with the idea that Wally might be coming around.

Wally frowned before repeating, "Why? Why would you want someone like me for a friend?"

Dick's eyes went wide beneath his glasses, "Why wouldn't I?"

"That's not an answer." Wally snapped before he sighed and leaned his head back, muttering softly, "Knew he couldn't figure out a reason."

Dick frowned, "I have reasons why you're my friend!" Wally waved his hand in a 'go on' motion and watched him carefully, cautiously, as Dick continued, "You're sarcastic in the funniest way. You're totally accepting of all of my quirks. You never mind when I disappear in the middle of a game or a text conversation and sometimes won't come back for days. You're always grudgingly okay with being woken up at one o'clock in the morning to help me with homework. You're fine with the fact that we barely ever actually see each other, most of our conversations being over text. You have an honest heart. You're so, so strong. You're brave and powerful and you're always there for me."

There. He'd done it. He'd laid it all out there for Wally to see and do with it what he wants. There wasn't anything more he could do here. His heart was lying, bleeding at Wally's feet and Wally could either protect it or add another wound. It was all up to the villain now.

Wally was watching Dick with an indeterminate expression, eyes hooded and expression tense, pained. For a second, Wally's mask cracked and there was something desperately keening for a friend in his expression, something in there begging Wally's world-weary heart to let go of all that hate for just a moment and  _trust_. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful and so, so very devastating and Dick was glad he was sitting down because he didn't know if he'd be able to stand after seeing that.

Then the crack was sealed back up, but there was still something real and purely  _Wally_ in the countenance that stared through the glass at Dick. Wally smirked a little, just a small lifting of one corner of his lips, "That right there sounded like a love confession. Is there something I should know?"

Dick's shoulders nearly dropped out of relief, but instead he just beamed back and said, "I thought I'd open the floor for the confession you're obviously waiting to give me."

"Oh please, I'm not the one who started waxing poetic." Wally rolled his eyes.

Dick grinned and answered back in a sing-song voice, "Doesn't mean you don't want to!" Together they laughed, and Dick felt something in him settle.

LLLLLL

Len faced off against the Flash, arms crossed and expression unamused. They hadn't seen each other in a long time, far too long for being each other's enemies. Len thinks that the last time he had seen Flash had actually been when he'd burst in their safehouse and talked with Wally.

The Flash really needed to stop bursting into their safehouses, now that he was thinking about it. It was actually quite obnoxious. They might be criminals with nebulous moral compasses, but they weren't savage enough to literally vibrate through someone's front door like the Flash was. And people called them monsters.

Flash sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face, "I heard that you're back in town permanently."

"And where did you hear that?" Len asked, nonplussed.

"Grodd decided he needed to rant about finally being free from the responsibility of part-time controlling the meat bags who dare to call themselves villains since you were no longer fettered to that conglomeration of foolish beings who had thought to control him." Flash answered, sighing again.

Len smirked, "He captured you for that rant, didn't he?"

"No." Flash said, defensively, but everyone raised their eyebrows at him, not impressed. He'd always been incapable of lying. Flash shook his head and flailed his arms around a bit, "Anyways, that's not what I was here to talk to you about. Plastic Man has a message for you."

"What did he do to Momentum that made it so the team of brats could catch him?" Mark interrupted first.

Flash winced a little there and Len felt his blood freeze at the thought that whatever happened worried Flash. The speedster said, "From what I've heard, you eavesdropped on Plastic Man's conversation with me. You heard him say that Luthor's scientists were creating something that would knock a metahuman's powers offline." Len twitched, eyes widening minutely. He saw the way Mark's face drained of blood and his hands clenched. Flash must have seen it too because he winced again and continued, "Plastic Man just broke the computers that were controlling the shutting-off-power thing so it'll take them a couple days to get Wally's powers up and running again. It wasn't that hard to get him when he couldn't run."

There was a long moment where no one said anything too that, most of them too lost in thoughts of what this meant for Wally. Len cleared his throat, "What's the message?"

Flash answered, "It's more of a favor, actually."

"I'm liking this less and less." Len threatened.

Flash frowned at him, "You know Icicle Jr.?" He waited for Len to nod before continuing, "Plastic Man thinks that the kid's going down a seriously bad path that could cause some definite problems. He was wondering if you would take the time to take him in? Like you took in James and Hartley and Wally?"

Len sighed and rubbed his forehead, "You want us to take in another kid and ensure that he continues to be a villain for the rest of his time with us?"

"Plastic Man's the one who wants it." Flash announced petulantly before his voice went softer, more serious, "You'll be good for him, though. He might end up staying a villain if he stays with you, but at least he won't be as villainous as he could be. You guys are career criminals, not monsters. And if he continues to be sucked into things like the Light, then he's going to become a monster. Besides, according to Plastic Man, him and Wally hit it off quick well. It wouldn't be like he was going into this without any friends."

Surprisingly, Hartley spoke next, agreeing with Flash, "Icicle Jr. doesn't seem to like where he's at. From the conversation I had with him, it sounds like he genuinely wanted to get out and join somewhere that treats metahumans and kids with more respect. Apparently he didn't think he was being valued the way he should where he was at. It wouldn't be half bad to have him here."

"Can we keep him? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?" James started chanting, sending Len a blinding smile.

Sighing and tuning the excitable teen, Len turned to the other adults, meeting each of their eyes. From every single one, he got a nod. Sending a nod back, Len announced, "Tell Plastic Man that we'll take Icicle Jr. in if he's cool with it. We've got to find him first though." Len scowled at the thought of fighting Cheshire and Sportsmaster for the little twerp.

Flash, though, lit up with a blinding grin that Len was pretty sure wasn't supposed to be as obnoxious as it was, "Thanks guys! This really means a lot. You're doing a great thing here. And I'm sure you'll find him soon. I wish you the best of luck. And," here the smile dropped a little and became more reassuring, "Wally's doing fine. He's being well taken care of even if he's a little irritated and being stuck in HQ."

He smiled again and zipped out of the room. Len stared at the door he'd left through. They were 'doing a great thing', huh? Looks like even villains can do something good every once in a while.


	39. School Day

AAAAAA

Artemis sucked down the fruit smoothie M'gann had enthusiastically whipped up for the girls. Zatanna was nearly growling at her homework as she worked on finishing up the smoothie. Artemis nudged the black-haired girl with her shoulder, "Need any help?"

Zatanna sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Why do teachers feel the need to give students homework over the holidays? It's not even all teachers! Most teachers are kind and compassionate enough to understand that the holidays are a  _break_  and there should  _not_ be homework during them." She sighed again, vigorously erasing a problem.

M'gann floated over, expression comforting, "What is it that you are working on?"

Zatanna sighed again, " _Chemistry_. I  _hate_  chemistry."

Artemis twitched as an obnoxious voice called from the entrance to the kitchen, "I'm wounded! How could you hate chemistry? It's definitely one of the best classes high school offers. You're missing out if you dislike it."

"Momentum." M'gann said, surprised. Her voice quickly brightened, though, and she chirped, "Here! Try this smoothie! Robin said that you liked watermelons, so I made you a watermelon smoothie!"

Momentum raised an eyebrow at Robin who was trailing behind him with a small smirk before shaking his head fondly and turning back to M'gann, "Anything for you, beautiful." She smiled back at him and Artemis rolled her eyes.

Completely disregarding common courtesy, Momentum pulled a bar stool up to the other side of the counter that Artemis and Zatanna were sitting at and grabbed the latter's homework, quickly reading through it. Zatanna made an aborted movement to stop Momentum, but let her hand fall back down to the table when she saw that he was marking through some of her answers. She leaned over towards him and said, "Please tell me that you aren't marking the wrong ones." Momentum nodded and Artemis winced; he was marking more than he was leaving blank.

Zatanna groaned and buried her head in her arms, moaning, "Why does Chemistry need to be so complicated?"

"It's not complicated, just complex." Momentum answered distractedly. He flipped to the front side and started going through that too.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Did you even go to school?"

"Mhm. Rogues make sure their kids end up with high school diplomas at the very least." Momentum said, nearing the end of the paper. He finally looked up once he finished the last problem, "Want me to show you how to do this? It's actually pretty easy if it's explained in a way you understand. It seems like you've got the basic concept down, but it's the minutiae that probably wasn't explained all that well to you."

Robin piped up, "You should take him up on the offer. He's super good at chemistry and he explains it really well. I can't tell you how many tests I would have failed if he hadn't helped me with the homework and studying."

Momentum's cheeks pinked a little and he shrugged one shoulder, "I'm not really all that good. Fred – uh, Robin's pretty smart. He would have gotten it himself given time." Robin beamed at him and scooted a bar stool next to him, easily reaching over and taking a sip of Momentum's smoothie. Momentum off-handedly smacked him on the shoulder for it, but seemed to be too invested in Zatanna's homework to properly care. Artemis wanted to punch both of them.

And then she wanted to punch Zatanna as the girl eagerly dove into chemistry lessons from a renowned criminal. She seemed totally invested in the lesson, eagerly adding to her notes as Momentum explained things.

At one point, Roy came up and ruffled Momentum's hair, causing him to squawk. In the confusion, Roy grabbed his smoothie and took a long sip, smirking around the straw at the indignant supervillain. He went to settle next to the two boys, but saw they were working on Chemistry and chose to settle down in the living room instead.

M'gann kept pushing foods at Momentum, telling him that he was skin and bones and that he needed to eat. He happily took the food with a lewd comment every time. He praised her for her cooking skills every time too, even when the food was burnt or whatever.

Then Connor walked over with a small laptop and put it down in front of Momentum, asking him to explain various hockey videos, of all things. Artemis had gaped at that as even Robin gave Connor a weird look, tilting his head in that way that was so reminiscent of a bird. Momentum easily split time between his two eager students, explaining the hockey points to Connor while Zatanna was working out a problem and then leaving Connor to try to figure something out while he was teaching Zatanna. Artemis couldn't believe her eyes.

Finally, her only chance at sanity walked into the room, calmly moving his eyes over the proceedings. Aqualad blinked at the image presented to him and then promptly moved to go read a book in the living room. Artemis gaped at him.

Were they all serious? What was wrong with them? Sure, they were supposed to make him feel like this was a place for him to heal and not a prison or whatever, but this must be going too far.

Artemis understood why he was here and she completely supported it, but it still rankled her. She knew that a big portion of why they were trying to get the information this way was to work towards rehabilitating him in the process. She knew that he could probably use the support in order to change, but it irritated her.

When she'd originally supported the plan, she hadn't realized how much it would bug her. Artemis's mother was the world renowned criminal Huntress. Her father and sister were Sportsmaster and Cheshire, famous assassins. She was raised to kill and do evil. Her entire  _life_  had been preparation for the day she would join the fight against the good side. But she chose to be a hero instead. She went against everything she'd ever known, everything she'd ever been trained for and joined the good side. She risked losing her family and losing the cautious life she'd built in the wake of her sister and father leaving. But she did it anyways. Artemis risked all of that, gave up everything to be a hero and to do good things for the world.

And here was this kid who, from what she could tell, didn't have that tough of a life. He hadn't been trained to kill or forced to go through day long, week long, month long training sessions to prepare him for the life of an assassin. If the Flash was his uncle, then he certainly hadn't grown up around villains. And yet he became a villain. He lost himself to the temptations of evil. Artemis had probably been through way worse than he had and she hadn't lost herself to that. She'd been stronger. She'd clawed her way to being a hero – to being redeemed – all by herself with no support or help.

But apparently this kid needs help to get to that point. Apparently he deserved help to be redeemed and rehabilitated. Where was her help and support? Where was her forgiveness for her former lifestyle? Roy certainly disliked her because of her parentage. Why did she get that? Why did she have to deal with such a rocky beginning when this kid who was nothing but weak was already practically a member of the Team by his second day? It wasn't fair and that rankled Artemis the wrong way.

Black Canary's voice tore her out of her angry thoughts, gathering everyone's attention, "We're going to do some conceptual training and then we'll go to the gym and do some physical training, alright?"

Momentum had tensed at the sight of Black Canary, but the wariness slipped out of his frame at Robin's hand on his shoulder and a soft look from Roy. It was obvious to Artemis that it was a front, though. The tenseness hadn't left his eyes and his hand still twitched like it was looking for something to use to protect him.

Slowly, a little bit of the irritation that had been building in Artemis drifted away. She took a moment to really  _look_  at Momentum. At first glance, he looked so calm and collected and cool like he was perfectly at ease and ready to take on the world. At a deeper look, it was obvious to tell that he was uncomfortable. He was shying away from people's touches and his eyes flickered around the room carefully, looking for exits and afraid of being caught doing it. His shoulders never really lost their tensed position and his eyes looked haunted above the dark half-moons that hung precariously beneath them.

He looked wrecked and Artemis suddenly switched mindsets. She took a brief moment as they walked to the Cave's classroom to try to put herself in his shoes. He was a criminal in the middle of a bunch of heroes. Something had obviously happened that made him so wary of trusting people with anything, especially adults. He had just lost his powers and had been taken prisoner. She felt a little bit more of her irritation slide away. This can't be easy for him either.

It still made her mad that he was getting this special treatment when she was left to fend for herself, but she accepted that maybe this wasn't the best experience for him either. He should have mustered the strength to use his powers for good or not at all, but there were probably circumstances that led him down this road that she couldn't possibly understand.

Of course, that irritation came back in full-force when he made some lewd comment to M'gann. Pervert.

Artemis scowled at him as she settled next to Zatanna in her usual spot, but that scowl lessened a little as he faltered at the sight of the classroom. It was modeled like any stereotypical classroom in a high school or whatever and was used whenever they were learning strategy or information on well-known villains. Roy raised an eyebrow, "What, you never been in a classroom before?"

It was obvious that he was teasing, but the scowl on Momentum's face was more serious than it should have been when he muttered, "Haven't been in one since I was eleven."

Artemis frowned at him, "I thought you said that the Rogues required their kids to have high school education or something like that."

Momentum turned his scowl on her, "I was… homeschooled from eleven to thirteen."

"I'm not getting where the high school diploma's coming in." Artemis scowled back just as fiercely.

His scowl suddenly turned into a smirk, "I graduated high school at thirteen."

"No way." Artemis growled. There was absolutely no way this  _moron_  had the intelligence and diligence required to graduate high school at thirteen.

"You wanna see my diploma? Oh wait, you can't. It's back at the house I'm not allowed to go to because I've been kidnapped by heroes." Momentum threw back, eyes blazing.

A new voice responded evenly, "He graduated high school at thirteen. He had been going to public school in his hometown until eleven when he and his father suddenly disappeared. There is no record of where he was or what he was doing in the two years between then and when his name was registered as a high school graduate. He then disappeared for another two years until he showed back up as a member of the Rogues." Batman swept into the room, usual scowl in place, easily beating both Artemis's and Momentum's scowls.

The glare that Momentum sent back, though, could quite possibly rival Batman's given a few more years of practice. He was practically shooting lasers out of his eyes with how acidic that glare was. Artemis was reluctantly impressed.

Black Canary raised an eyebrow at the other Justice League member, "Batman. I didn't know you'd be here today."

"I'm observing." He answered, swirling to go stand in a corner, blending into the dark shadows there. Artemis felt her skin crawl. As much as she knew that he was an amazing hero and that he was apparently not as tetchy when his mask was off, he still scared her sometimes. It was hard to not be afraid of him. Though, Momentum didn't seem to have that much of a problem glaring at the Gothamite.

Black Canary shrugged and got on with the lesson. It was another one of the lessons on famous villains and how to take them down. Black Canary would flash a picture on the board and the Team would take turns saying if they knew anything about the villains. Robin always went last because he was most likely to know something (or everything) about the villain. There were a couple he knew little to nothing about – ones that were kind of lowkey and currently undefeated, or ones like the Joker that he didn't know the past of. Otherwise, though, he had the villains down. Sometimes, though, Connor would know almost as much about the villains, but that was mainly for Superman's villains. Cadmus had apparently decided that he would need to know about those.

The first villain to pop up on the board was unfamiliar to Artemis, but Momentum evidently recognized him if the scowl on his face meant anything. The villain was wearing a trench coat and a weird mask that looked almost like a target. Black Canary smiled and said, "How about you go first today, Momentum? Just say everything you know about this villain."

Momentum rolled his eyes and muttered, "This is Onomatopoeia. He doesn't have any powers that I know of. He killed a non-powered vigilante couple. He only talks in onomatopoeias which is really creepy when someone's fighting him. All you had to do to get him to kill someone was tell him that it's a non-powered vigilante and call him. He didn't ask for money to do it. That's all I got."

"How do you know so much?" Zatanna asked curiously. Artemis felt like she'd heard the name Onomatopoeia before, but she couldn't remember where she'd heard it from.

Roy snorted, "That was the mission he ran for me as my informant. We were trying to take Onomatopoeia down. Mind, I hadn't expected him to use  _me_  as bait."

"Are you still not over that? Seriously? What else was I supposed to do. There was no way Eel was going to get me a way to contact Onomatopoeia without a reason to want to talk to him. And the only reason I'd want to talk to him would be to kill off a vigilante." Momentum threw back, rolling his eyes.

"It's not like there aren't plenty of other non-powered vigilantes in Star City." Roy pointed out.

Momentum sighed, "I was put on the spot. I think I had pretty legit improv skills. What do you guys think? I'm in the middle of a criminal bar, sent there to get information on a person and the only way anyone can get in contact with him is with a request. What would you have done?"

Roy added something before anyone could answer, "Also keep in mind that he was in the bar for, like, fifteen minutes max and he managed to get the business cards of three criminals and had foisted his bill onto someone else. With those kind of negotiating skills, he totally could have gotten to Onomatopoeia without putting me up for bait, right?"

Robin looked like he was going to burst out laughing and be absolutely no help in the argument and Connor and M'gann mainly looked confused. Zatanna seemed as close to laughing as Robin. Black Canary was looking at the two like they were adorable little puppies. Surprisingly, it was Kaldur who injected himself into the conversation, "On the one hand, based on the information provided, Momentum could have easily gotten the information necessary without using Red Arrow as bait. On the other hand, though, there was limited time and preparation available for the situation and Momentum was not provided with sufficient resources to obtain the information he needed."

"C'mon Fishboy! You've gotta pick a side. You can't just leave this hanging." Momentum complained.

Kaldur nodded seriously, completely nonplussed by the insulting nickname, "I believe that Red Arrow is in the right in this situation."

Momentum dramatically put a hand to his chest, "You've betrayed me! How could you pick him?"

With a completely deadpan expression, Kaldur said, "I believe that each side is equal, so I chose the side that I like better."

Robin lost it then, doubling over laughing and not even trying to contain it at this point. Momentum glared at him, "Seriously dude? I get insulted by Fishboy and instead of supporting me like a true bro, you just sit there and laugh. I'm more offended by you, honestly. Hey, Fishboy, want a new friend? You've gotta be better than this one." Aqualad sent him a small smile, but didn't say anything.

Robin cackled, "Aw, I thought we were best friends, Wally!" The other occupants in the room froze, waiting for the inevitable explosion Momentum was going to have for being called Wally, but he didn't comment on it, just rolling his eyes and pushing Robin's shoulder lightly.

Black Canary, soft smile on her lips, called the class back to attention at that point, giving out a few details that Momentum had left out in his brief summary. She looked Momentum straight in the eyes when she listed former arresting heroes as Red Arrow and Momentum. He scowled lightly at her, but the moment her back was turned, the scowl morphed into something more tremulous and troubled. There was something honestly pained in his expression, It was almost as if the idea of being a hero physically pained him, but that was stupid. Who wouldn't want to be a hero?

How could he honestly enjoy being a hero more than he would enjoy being a villain? Sure, villains get more freedom because they're not restricted by moral codes, but there was something inherently satisfying in being able to get something done within the rules that have been laid out. Every arrest was made more special by understanding that you didn't stoop down to the criminal's level to do that. It made her feel more important to know that she was doing amazing things without breaking any laws and without hurting anyone.

Didn't it hurt him to hurt others? Didn't it make him feel incredibly guilty every time he stole from someone? She didn't understand how people could do the things criminals do. Even though she grew up around his kind, she still didn't understand. Her mom had never been able to fully explain why she'd done what she'd done for so long. Her mom had even said once that if she hadn't been wheelchair bound, there was a good chance that she'd still be out there as a supervillain. But being wheelchair bound had changed her and made her see the world a different way apparently. She said it was something about being taken away from the temptation for so long that had changed her.

Maybe it would be the same with Momentum. His powers had been taken away and, therefore, his temptation was taken away. This might be the pivotal moment in his change from the bad side to the good side.

He looked so uncomfortable right now, but there was still something in his expression that said that he wanted this. There was something in there that made it seem like doing good was something that he would be interested in.

And here she was making this so much more difficult. She was doing absolutely nothing to help him find his way in this world. How could she judge him for taking the path of criminal activities over a hero's life when she didn't blame her mom for doing the exact same thing? It wasn't fair of her to put her mom to different standards just because they were related and she'd never blame her mom for everything she did because her mom did end up making the right decision and that should be all that matters. It shouldn't matter how much help someone needs to get to that point of redemption in their lives and it shouldn't matter how much they resist that change. All that should matter is that they make the change in the long run.

Artemis had a problem with not trusting people and she had a problem with loud-mouth jerks and she had a problem with perverts and she had a problem with criminals, but it was okay. She could work through those things. No one was perfect and she knew that applied to her as well. It was hard to admit that out loud, but she didn't need to. As long as she knew that about herself and understood, then she could change and become a better person.

So she would. Artemis would become a better person and treat Momentum better. And maybe, someday, Momentum could look back on his time here at Mount Justice and be able to say that Artemis was one of the people who had helped him become a hero, become a better person. Because Artemis was a hero, herself, and that meant that she had made a promise to help everyone – hero or civilian or villain.

When Momentum next looked over at Artemis, she made sure that she had a soft, understanding smile for him. It was worth it for the tentative half smile she got back.

WWWWWW

_Wally gasped as strobe lights flashed beneath eyes in time with the pain flaring in his body. His fingers twitched and his muscles spasmed as the breath left his lungs in a big whoosh. The electricity subsided after a second or so, but it had felt like an eternity of endless pain and loss of control to the speedster._

_"Try again." A disembodied voice echoed around the chamber that Wally had come to hate. It was the room they always brought him for his 'schooling'. Everything in there had the ability to electrocute him and that little function was used a little too liberally for his taste. Every wrong answer was enforced with a bolt of electricity. Too many wrong answers in a row meant that he lost the right to food for the night. If he'd already lost that day's dinner, then they'd figure something worse to do._

_The only bright point he could find in this was that he was certainly going to remember the things he learned in 'school' a lot better than he would have in a public-school setting. For as long as he could, Wally tried his hardest to find bright spots in this endless cycle of pain and anger and betrayal and experiments and dehumanization. It was getting harder, though. After a little over a year of being stuck in this horrible testing facility, hope was starting to slip out of his reach._

_Distantly, Wally heard the warning buzz of something charging with electricity. He realized that he'd been distracted for too long, so he dragged himself back into the present, rasping, "It's an Elizabethan sonnet." The warning buzz disappeared, and Wally let himself give a sigh of relief, finding happiness in the smallest things because those were all that was left to him at this point._

_Suddenly, the door opened to his left. He lifted sunken eyes to face the person who'd come in. He wasn't supposed to leave 'school' for another three lessons or so (they never let him know the time or how long something took; he wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with testing his inner clock and leaving him in a sense of hopeless confusion). When he saw who was standing there, though, he let out a weary sigh. It was a scientist._

_Everyone at the compound was either a scientist or a guard from what Wally could tell. He couldn't remember seeing any other experiments like him, but from what people said there were definitely other people in here. He just wasn't allowed to see them. The guards were rougher with him, mocking him and jeering at him and beating him for the slightest little things, finding perverse enjoyment from electrocuting him in 'school' and from testing his pain levels._

_The scientists scared him more, though. There was something about the fact that they caused as much pain and misery as the guards, just with no emotions. They weren't even getting enjoyment out of his pain. They were just doing it for whatever research project they were working on. It made him feel like he was useless. It made him feel like a thing instead of a person. Somedays he couldn't even remember what it was like to feel like a human instead of an experiment. Somedays he couldn't even remember his name because they only ever called him by the string of numbers and letters that had become his title when he came to this cursed place._

_The scientist called out to the guard that was controlling the electrocution, "One of the girls had an idea and thought that A034 would be the best one to test the idea on. She said that it was in school. We'll make sure that it gets back to you in an hour or so."_

_"Go right ahead. Page me if I'm not back by the time you've brought him in, yeah?" The guard said._

_"Will do." The scientist responded flippantly, gesturing for some other guards. They gripped Wally on both arms and dragged him out of the room. He didn't resist, moving along with them and trying to get his tired limbs to cooperate even though a couple of them were still twitched minutely._

_When they reached the examination room, Wally closed his eyes as despair swept over him. This was his life. There was no escape. They led him to a table and made quick work of strapping him down to it, pulling it tight enough to bring out a small, tired grunt from Wally. In the end, though, there was nothing he could do. Nothing._

Wally blinked into awareness, limbs heavy and pressed comfortingly into the bed that they'd finally put him in. Apparently he'd behaved well enough to be allowed into a room instead of a cell like last time. His door was still heavily locked, but it was bigger than that cell and had furniture and a bathroom which was significantly more than he'd had before.

Sitting up, Wally sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face and stretching. For a moment, he couldn't think of what would have triggered a dream like that, but then he thought about the 'class' he'd taken earlier that day. It had reminded him of the last time he'd been in any sort of school setting and those weren't exactly good memories. Eyes haunted with memories of pain and misery, Wally couldn't fall back asleep.

LLLLLL

Luthor stormed through the labs, irritation curled around him like a billowing cloak. It radiated off him in waves and sent the lesser scientists scrambling out of his way. He ignored the way Rudolph's eyes lit up at the sight of his anger, ignored the way it set his stomach turning in an unpleasant manner.

There was only one important thing at the moment, or, rather, only one important  _person_  at the moment and they were at the back of the room, in the important labs, the one that housed everything to do with Wally. Wally had been and will always be their greatest source of information, purely for the reason that he managed to survive longer than any of the other test subjects. They'd had him for two whole years before he disappeared the first time. And then he was still alive two years later after living alone on the streets. It had been a blessing to get him back in Luthor's hands. Of course, it had been difficult to get Wally to the level of trust they needed and they'd been unable to perform certain tests because it would break his nebulous trust with them, but it had been worth it when he'd realized that the powers had shut off perfectly.

Then that cursed Plastic Man had ruined everything. And those little  _brats_  the Justice League had chasing after them. They had ruined  _everything_. There was no way they could even comprehend the complete devastation of what they'd done to his research.

Finally, Luthor reached the back of the labs. Before he could even say anything to the head scientist, the man read the unsaid question in Luthor's countenance and answered, "We will have his powers back on in two days."

Two days. Luthor would get his little experiment back in two days. Two days.


	40. Lab Experience

WWWWWW

Wally was getting antsy. Like, really, really,  _really_  antsy. Like, he was going to snap and kill someone antsy. Was it too much to ask to just let him take a run around the base or something? He would let them blindfold him and lead him around if they didn't want him to see where he was. He was  _that_  desperate. Running an irritated hand through his hair, Wally sighed, eyes closing.

At this point, if he could figure out how to escape, he'd just do a lap around wherever they were and then come back. He would behave the well if it meant that they'd trust him to  _go outside_ (not really, but it almost felt like it). These heroes had a speedster, didn't they? They  _knew_  how horrible it was to be stuck in some place for a long time. They  _knew_  it. Was this a purposeful torture technique? Were they doing this to specifically fray his nerves? Because it was working if they did. The last time he was forcefully contained in one place for this long, it had been with the scientists. At least the Light were kind enough to give him little missions to do to stretch his legs. The Rogues had never locked him up like a rabid dog. What does it say about the heroes that they were the bad ones in this situation, huh? Nothing good, that's what.

Wally punched the wall in frustration.

Gaining control of himself, Wally took a few deep breaths, like Cheshire had taught him, pulling in his anger. He didn't want to be caught now.

After being awoken by  _that_  dream, he'd decided to put his time to better use then just sitting there staring at the dark because he certainly wasn't going back to bed. So, he'd gotten out of bed and started working on picking the lock to his bedroom. They had made the mistake of giving him a less complicated lock than the one that'd been on his cell. Maybe they hadn't been just making it up when they'd said that they were trying to get him to trust them. There was a lot of trust in giving him such an easy to pick lock.

Well, it wasn't that easy, but it was challenging and fun and, most importantly, he could do it. The moment he'd gotten through the lock on his door, he'd run as quickly and quietly around the compound as he could. The only exit he'd seen throughout the day or so he'd been out and about was the one in the front, with the zeta beam transporters.

It turns out, zeta beam transporters were actually incredibly difficult to hack into. Especially when he'd already been labelled chemically as a villain that should not be allowed exit. He not only needed to get through Batman level encryptions, but he needed to provide biological proof that a high-ranking Justice League member was there and observing and approving of the change in status from 'not allowed to leave ever' to 'go right ahead'. And for this stupid machine, biological proof meant the person actually standing there and being scanned by the machine. Which was trash. If it was just DNA, then Wally definitely could have just grabbed Black Canary's hair at some point and used that, but this was way more intense. It was also way more impossible.

Shaking his head, Wally berated himself. He needed to think positively. He might not even need to change his status in the computer. That would probably be easier to detect and he needed this change to go undetected for as long as possible. Instead of changing his status in the transporter, he could change someone else's DNA signature. He needed to replace someone else's scan with his. Basically, he needed the computer to scan him and recognize it as someone else. Perfect! There was a chemical masking technique that one of the scientists in the Light's labs was telling him about. The mixture would basically sit over him as a lotion of sorts and could mask his DNA for up to fifteen minutes. If he mixed someone's DNA in with it, then it would show their DNA instead of his to anything that read it. Currently, the mixture was mainly theoretical. Not for long, though.

Thinking furiously, Wally stealthily headed to the labs he'd glimpsed on his rounds through the building. The chemical formulas and properties ran through his head, mixing and merging in different ways. First he needed to decide who's DNA he was using. If it was one of the aliens, then he'd need to rethink the whole formula. But, no. The aliens were (loathe as he was to admit it) too tall for him. Superboy was too tall, too broad, too buff for Wally to ever pass as him. Wally's plan was to mess with the sensors a little bit, so the sensors only read the DNA and a thereabouts reading of height and body build. Which meant that he needed someone of the same-ish build and height as him. Superboy was, like he'd said, too tall, broad, and buff. Aqualad was way too tall as well. Same with Roy. Miss Martian was significantly too slim for Wally to pass as her. Robin and Zatanna were too short. That just left…

No. No way. Seriously? He had to pass himself off as  _Artemis_?  _Seriously_? Sighing, Wally tried to figure out a way to get her DNA even as he started mixing various things. She would actually murder him if he just yanked a hair out of her head. And it wasn't like he was going to be let anywhere near her room to be able to grab a hair out of there. He knew he'd have the stealth to slip a cup that she'd used out from under her nose, but Robin would never miss it and that one was always watching him like a hawk. Or, some kind of bird at least.

Wally narrowed his eyes at the mixture cooking on the Bunsen burner, stepping to the side a little to write out the answers to the calculations he was running in his head. He tried to grab the pencil, but it slipped out of his hand, smashing to the ground.

Gasping, Wally realized that his hand was shaking. Taking another deep, calming breath, Wally tried to focus himself. It was fine. He was just tired since he hadn't been sleeping well in the cell. And, of course, the nightmare. Then there was the fact that he was more than antsy about being stuck in this stupid building. He couldn't let it get to him. He had to ignore the way that it was making him feel shaky and close to a panic attack. He just needed to get his head on straight and deal with it. He wasn't some kid. He  _could_ deal with this.

"Wally?" A voice called out, causing Wally to drop that stupid pencil again. He froze a little bit at being caught, shoulders tense and back straight, body ready to run. Black Canary came up closer, eyeing him worriedly. Despite the fact that she was wearing pajamas and her hair was completely mussed, she looked ready to fight, muscles coiled, "Wally, what are you doing? How did you get out of your room?"

"You should invest in better locks. Yours are too easy to pick." Wally answered blithely, keeping one eye on his experiment as he edged slowly away from her, not liking the close quarters.

Black Canary reached out with one arm, but dropped it after a searching look at his face, "Why aren't you sleeping? Is your bed not comfortable?"

Wally scowled, "Not everyone can just sleep all the time. Sometimes there are nights where people just can't sleep. Especially when they're a villain stuck in a hero hideout." He tried to insert a layer of acid into his voice, but the adrenaline rush of getting caught – of needing to  _run run run_  and not being able to – mixed with the simmering claustrophobia and the lack of sleep and the leftover jitteriness of his nightmare stopped him from sounding anything but pathetic. His hand was shaking pitifully again, and it was taking all of his effort to keep the pencil in his hand.

"Wally, you can't do this. You know you're not allowed to just wander around by yourself." Black Canary said, a furrow beneath her brow. She narrowed her eyes at his shaking hand, but didn't say anything. That was possibly the kindest thing she could have done in this situation.

Wally licked his lips and put the infernal pencil down before he dropped it again and really embarrassed himself, "What did you want me to do? Stay cooped up in my room so I was irritable and snappy in the morning? Wake someone else up and say that I couldn't get any sleep so they shouldn't either? What should I have done in that situation?"

"You should have come to me." Black Canary said, so entirely sincere that Wally had to suck in a breath. Her eyes were passion when she repeated, "You should have come to me. Do you really believe that none of the others have nightmares?" She stopped his rebuke with a raised hand, continuing, "They always know that if I'm here at the time, then they can come to me. That goes for you too. You know where my room is. I'm a crimefighter, Wally. I'm used to losing a few hours of sleep." She smiled softly, understandingly at him.

The speedster resisted the urge to send a smile back, instead squaring his shoulders and turning around, commenting offhandedly, "Well, I'm not leaving, so if you want me to be watched, then you've gotta stay here." Black Canary smiled and sat down in a chair next to him. Wally tutted, "No sitting in a lab, Black Canary. Speaking of, if you're going to be that close, you should probably grab some safety gear. Don't want you to get hurt." He hadn't even realized the magnitude of what he'd just said until Black Canary grinned at him like it was Christmas. He scowled back at her, gesturing with his tongs towards the lab coats and goggles. She didn't say anything, but just moved towards the rack.

She came back to him, leaning against the table behind her. The hero leaned forwards a little bit, peering at the mass of goop that Wally was growling at. She hummed lightly to get his attention before asking, "So, from the point of view of someone who knows little to nothing about science, what exactly are you doing? And should I be worried about explosions?" The little smirk on her face when Wally turned around to glare at her told him that she was joking, but he was still a little miffed.

Sniffing slightly, Wally said, "I hardly think I'm inexperienced enough in a lab that you should be worried about explosions. I might be working with conceptual theories and flammable chemicals, but I understand their properties and I am very careful in the lab."

Black Canary laughed slightly, hands raised to show her innocence, "Okay, okay! No more insinuations of lab inexperience. My bad."

She muffled more giggled under her palm and Wally rolled his eyes, "Do you want to hear what this is, or no?"

"I'd love to." Black Canary said, immediately wresting control of her laughter, though her eyes still danced.

With a sigh, Wally started explaining how it was meant to be a lotion, describing what he was doing to get the lotion like properties. He mentioned that it was supposed to hide DNA traces and that it was something he'd been theorizing on for a while now. Hopefully, she wouldn't figure out why he was making it now. Hopefully she'd just think that he was getting anxious about his imprisonment and just wanted to science.

It was actually soothing, though, to be able to talk through the process with someone else while he was doing it. Mind, he had to significantly simplify things and had to stop what he was doing sometimes to try to think of a way to explain the process to someone without scientific knowledge. It wasn't that it was all that difficult to understand (complex, not complicated); it was just that science had so much jargon and not all of it was self-explanatory, so he had to explain all of the terms.

At least, it was soothing until it quite literally blew up in their faces. There was a huge boom that sent the two of them flying backwards. The projectile was, luckily, squishy, but still didn't feel particularly nice hitting their ribs at that speed (especially Wally's broken ones). It was just a good thing that Black Canary was standing, otherwise that would have hit her right in the face which would have been devastating.

Wally landed flat on his back, just next to Black Canary. The both of them were breathing hard. Wally had an arm curled around his ribs, wanting to curl up and nurse his wounds somewhere, but not really willing to move. Black Canary groaned and fingered at her midriff, "What was that about you 'understanding their properties' and being 'very careful' in the lab?"

"Your chemicals were faulty." Wally threw back immediately. The two stared at each other for a moment, hair blown back and bruise blossoming on Wally's forehead and soot framing one of Black Canary's cheekbones. Wally fought valiantly against a smile even as one formed on Black Canary's mouth. His lips twitched and hers did the same thing. They stared at each other for another moment. That was it. Wally burst out laughing, loud, unrestrained laughter in the face of the situation, heedless of the pain in his ribs. Black Canary followed a breath later, switching between full-out laughter and little giggles as she put a hand to her forehead.

It took four minutes for the Team to get to the site of the explosion, but Wally and Black Canary were still laughing at that point, Wally curled further into himself and Black Canary's hand wrapped lightly around his forearm. Roy rubbed his forehead irritably, "Seriously? Why was I even worried?"

"Are you alright?" Miss Martian asked worriedly, flitting around their heads as Robin peered curiously into the lab.

Black Canary gasped out, "I think we'll be fine. I don't have to worry about these chemicals poisoning me or eating through my clothing, do I?"

"I don't know. Your chemicals are weird." Wally answered back cheekily.

Black Canary rolled her eyes fondly, "Wally."

Wally smirked back, "Nah, they'll be fine. I think I know what happened, though. I'm pretty sure next time I do it, there won't be a problem, but I'll definitely have a blast shield just in case. Also, can I just say? Aren't you glad I made you stand up and wear protective gear?"

Artemis shook her head, voice exasperated, "It's not even three o'clock in the morning. Why is this a problem before three in the morning?"

"You're just… not adv-venturous enough." Wally gasped out, not prepared for the pain he'd get when he tried to get up.

Aqualad was by his side in a second, easing him back down and working the lab coat off, "Is it your ribs?"

"Yeah, but it's fine." Wally said, getting his breathing back under control.

"Are you sure?" Black Canary asked worriedly, leaning over Wally.

"Yes, I'm sure. The blast probably just jostled something. I'll deal with it if it did. I know how to wrap my own ribs." Wally said, cheeks tinting in embarrassment as he waved a hand at them, moving to get himself up on his own. He ignored the comfort he felt at Aqualad's arm hovering beneath his elbow, ready to catch him if he fell.

Black Canary frowned at him for a moment, the mirth from earlier still there, but a shadow of worry darkening her eyes, "Alright. I'm going to send Aqualad and Robin with you to the infirmary to get you checked over, okay? I'm personally going to go take a shower while Red Tornado cleans this mess up. Is there anything you want him to save?"

Wally gave her a little smile, oddly pleased that she would think to ask that, "Nah, I've got it all up here." He tapped his head.

She smiled back, "Good. The rest of you, head back to bed. I know it'll be tough going back to sleep after this, but please try." The rest of the Team nodded and shuffled off, even as Black Canary gave him a nod and left towards her shower.

"Are you good to walk?" Robin asked.

Wally rolled his eyes, "I hurt my ribs, not my legs."

Robin scowled at him, "Pardon me for being concerned."

Wally raised an eyebrow at his friend before turning to Aqualad, "Is he always this much of a bear when he wakes up in the mornings?"

"Only when those he…  _loves_  are potentially in danger." Aqualad said, giving Robin a look when he said the word 'love'. Wally wondered at the inflection and the way Robin pinked and stuck a tongue out at the other hero. Whatever, didn't affect him. It was probably some inside joke.

After a moment of companionable silence, Robin said carefully, "Wally, you're going the wrong way. The infirmary's this way." He pointed down the other direction of the hallway.

Wally rolled his eyes, "Anything we can do in an infirmary, we can do in my room. I don't really like infirmaries, so I figured we'd just wrap these up in my room."

Aqualad and Robin didn't budge, still looking at him strangely. Aqualad said slowly, "It would be more efficient and likely more helpful if your ribs were to be wrapped in the infirmary."

Wally squared his shoulders, the humor of a few minutes ago drifting away beneath the simmering anxiety that crawled beneath his skin and made him feel even more claustrophobic. These were the feelings that he had just managed to escape in the lab. He shrugged, "I'm sure it's not that much more helpful. Like I said, I don't like infirmaries. They're too clinical for me. You'd think that hospitals would look nicer and homier, so the patients could heal in a comfortable place, right?"

Robin frowned, "We have to go to the infirmary to grab the supplies anyways. It makes more sense to just do it there instead of having to walk there, grab the stuff, go to your room, and then go put the stuff back. It's fine. Our infirmary is pretty chill. You'll be good."

Wally wanted to fight it, to say no and refuse to go to the infirmary, but they were already looking at him like he was crazy, and he really didn't need a fight this early in the morning with anxiety thrumming under his skin and injured ribs. Wally shrugged, feigning nonchalance, "Whatever. Just saying it'd be more comfortable in my room." Robin continued to give him a worried look (that is somehow projected through that mask), but Aqualad accepted the answer in stride and walked onwards towards the infirmary.

The closer they got to the room, the slower Wally walked, palms sweating and breath closing off. He hated hospitals. He  _hated_  them. When he was a kid, a hospital meant lying his butt off to kind nurses about just how he'd broken his arm and where all those bruises came from. When he was with the scientists, a hospital meant that they'd stopped his heart and needed to get it back up again because anything else wasn't considered serious enough to bring him to their version of an infirmary. When he was on his own, a hospital meant people who would throw him out or call the police or just refuse to serve him because his rapid healing obviously denoted him as a metahuman. Beyond all that, the white walls and floor and the rickety white hospital beds and all those machines made him feel like he was back in that lab again, getting experimented on and pulled apart and… and…

But this wasn't even all that much like a hospital. It was fine. The only 'doctors' was Robin and Aqualad. It was okay. There was nothing wrong with this. He could do it.

Then why were his hands shaking so bad?

They reached the doors and Wally stopped, rooted to the floor. He couldn't do this. He… he couldn't do this. They would just have to deal with that fact. Shaking his head, Wally turned around and started walking away.

"Hey!" Robin called, "Wally, what are you doing? Wally? Where're you going? The infirmary's right here!"

"I'm not going to the infirmary. I  _hate_  infirmaries." Wally answered with conviction, not even turning around.

Suddenly, there was a hand on his arm and Aqualad's voice was saying… saying something, but just as suddenly, it wasn't Aqualad holding onto his arm. It was one of the guards. Wally didn't want to go back to that room. They hadn't let him sleep in three days and he was running on barely enough food to keep him awake, let alone mentally prepared enough to handle whatever the scientists were going to do to him. He wouldn't let the guards take him! They couldn't! Not today. Not when he just wanted to melt into the floor. Not when even the thought of living hurt like a physical blow. He wouldn't let them! He wouldn't! He  _wouldn't_!

DDDDDD

Dick watched, eyes wide, as Wally  _flipped out_. His hesitance to go to the infirmary had been weird enough, but then he'd actually turned around and flat out refused to go in. They were just going to wrap his ribs, not perform a surgery!

And then, when Kaldur had grabbed his arm, Wally had started bucking, lashing out whenever he could, causing Kaldur to have to duck and try to restrain him. Dick dove into the fray, trying to grab a hand, keeping up a steady litany of pleas for Wally to calm down. If e couldn't get him under control soon, they'd have to call for some more help and no one wanted that.

Kaldur said calmly, if a little tense, "Perhaps it would be better if we were to move Momentum away from the infirmary."

"Right." Dick gasped, maneuvering with Kaldur to get Wally away from the door that had caused the speedster to freak out so thoroughly.

They both let out a breath of relief when Wally slumped the moment the door was out of sight. Carefully, they put the ginger down, stepping back cautiously. Wally was shaking slightly, eyes staring at something only he could see, expression pained and…  _afraid_.

"What just happened?" Dick asked, carefully scooting forward and feeling Wally's thankfully normal (for him) pulse.

Kaldur frowned, "I do not know. I had not realized that the infirmary would distress him so."

"Nothing we know about him would indicate a reason for that strong of a reaction. Maybe it's something to do with the four years that we know nothing about." Dick theorized, sitting down, cross legged next to Wally.

Kaldur lowered himself in a much more graceful way, peering at Wally, "I am sure he will tell you when the time is right. As for now, though, he does not appear to be coming back to reality."

Frowning, Dick realized that he was right. Cursing under his breath, Dick grabbed a packet of smelling salts from his utility belt. Hoping against hope that this wouldn't make things worse, Dick waved the smelling salts under his friend's nose.

There was a pause where the two heroes just sat there, waiting for a reaction. Then, suddenly, Wally gasped, eyes clearing and focusing as he roughly pushed the salts from under his nose, breathing harshly.

"You okay?" Dick asked carefully.

"I'm fine." Wally answered immediately, voice rough.

"You do not sound fine." Kaldur answered, just as worried.

Wally snapped at him, "I'm  _fine_ , got it?"

"Aqualad's just trying to help." Dick said, frowning at his friend, noticing the way that Wally curled into himself. He swallowed before asking, "What caused that, Wally? If we know what caused your panic attack, we can-,"

"It wasn't a panic attack." Wally growled. He took a shallow breath and repeated in a softer tone, "It wasn't a panic attack. It was just a memory. I'm fine. I told you. I hate infirmaries." His hands shook and he closed his eyes for a moment.

Robin swallowed again, "Okay. That's fine. Aqualad'll just go grab the stuff to wrap your ribs and we'll do it out here, okay?"

"I'm not some invalid, so don't treat me like one." Wally snapped irritably, but didn't ask for them to do something different.

No, Dick thought, Wally certainly wasn't an invalid. He was too independent for his own good. It was going to hurt him, one day. He'll realize that he's pushed everyone so far away that they won't hear him when he finally calls for help. No. Dick shook his head to dislodge the thoughts. This was what this time was for. They were going to help Wally and make sure that never happens. They could do it. They  _would_  do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's only letting me post three, sorry! Hope you enjoy the ones I did manage to post!


	41. Triggered It

WWWWWW

Wally wasn't necessarily avoiding Robin. Then again, in this small of a place with this few of people, it was kind of hard to avoid someone even if he were trying. But he wasn't trying. He just… he just wasn't exactly  _conversational_  with Robin.

It wasn't like Wally was mad at the hero or anything! He was just… okay, yeah, he was embarrassed! He acted like a complete weirdo in front of possibly one of his best friends ever. Wally couldn't believe that he'd gotten stuck in his memories like that. They were normally a lot easier to control and he normally did a lot better at hiding his reactions. It was hard to do that, though, when anxiety was still thrumming beneath his skin and even the blanket of tiredness didn't slow the stressed pulses of  _need to run run run_.

He wasn't going to ask the heroes to let him out though. He wasn't going to show them that weakness. Wally had already revealed the infirmary as a sore point, he wasn't going to be giving them any more pointers.

That was another thing that was adding to his anxiety, though. The heroes hadn't really asked him anything yet. They weren't pushing him for information and they weren't pushing themselves onto him in an effort to get him to trust them. They were acting almost as if he had been here the whole time and he was a part of their Team. Which he wasn't.

And that was  _another_  thing that was adding to his anxiety: what had happened to  _his_  team? Wally had seen blood on the ground just before Artemis had punched him. That meant that either Sportsmaster, Cheshire, or Icicle Jr. were injured. Maybe even more than one. Maybe even all of them. Wally didn't want any of them to be injured. Cheshire was his trainer and kind of getting somewhere near a fried status and Icicle Jr. was one of his best friends. Sportsmaster was… a whole different kind of relationship that Wally did not have the mental energy to try to define, but he didn't want to see Sportsmaster injured either.

But at least one of them was injured and Wally couldn't do a single thing about it. He didn't even know which one was injured or how bad or anything like that. As he was then, he was zero help to his team. And he hated not being useful.

It was hard to know that there had to be some way out of this prison that he found himself in, but he hadn't found it yet. Cheshire and Sportsmaster would probably have been out of here by now. Icicle Jr. probably wouldn't have even been captured. Actually, none of them would have let themselves be captured, probably.

Wally was so useless without his powers, though. And he'd been completely blindsided when he'd tried to access the Speed Force and hit a wall instead. He needed to work on reaction time and adapting to unforeseen situations. Then he would have reacted better when the Team set those traps. And he would have reacted better when his powers stopped working. And he would have been able to stop his team from being hurt. And he wouldn't be in this stupid situation in the first place.

He also wouldn't have taught Superboy how hockey works. And he wouldn't have found out that Freddie and Robin are the same person. This experience wasn't all bad…

He couldn't let himself think that way! He was letting them get to him and it was bad. He needed to worry about getting back to the Light and figuring out what stopped his powers and making sure that his team was alright. Wally wanted to get the big huge mission over with, so he could finally see the Rogues again (he was sure that he was ready to face them, determined to work things out between them). Wally wanted to go back to crime where he was knocking over a bank with the Rogues or stealing an integral piece of scientific equipment with Cheshire. He wanted away from these heroes that only confused him.

They weren't hurting him, and they weren't interrogating him. Their behavior was weird and conflicting and confusing and Wally didn't know what to believe other than the fact that he wanted to  _go home_.

But he couldn't even think of that much when Robin was constantly hovering, reminding Wally of the freak out he'd had early that morning and the consequent embarrassment that had accompanied it. The three hadn't said much of anything to each other as Aqualad and Robin escorted Wally back to his room and reset the lock (and if Wally noticed that Robin put an extra layer of his own protection to make sure that Wally didn't get out a second time, then he didn't say anything) before heading back to their own rooms.

Wally wasn't even sure why he was so embarrassed. Sure, it was always embarrassing to lose your cool like that around people, but Wally wasn't anywhere near as embarrassed about the fact that Aqualad saw him as the fact that Robin did. Was it because Robin was Wally's first (best) friend? Was it because Wally figured that he was going to continue to see Robin even after he escaped where interactions with Aqualad would be minimal and constricted a battlefield?

Why did it even matter? What did Wally care that he was getting all embarrassed about Robin seeing him showing a weakness? That wasn't what he needed to focus on. He needed to focus on getting out. He'd been neglecting that for too long and he wasn't going to stand for it any longer. Wally had a plan in place and he was almost certain that he could make the lotion next time he got his hands on some lab equipment, but all he needed then was some of Artemis's DNA. That was going to be tricky. There wasn't really a subtle way to get someone's DNA when Robin was crouched behind you the entire day.

Wally shrugged to himself; there was really only one option here: he would just stick by Artemis the entire day and hope that a situation presented itself.

So, when Artemis announced that she was going to go practice with her bow and arrow down in the gym, Wally immediately stood and said, "I'll go with you!"

Artemis gave him a disgusted look, "Did I invite you?"

He scowled, "I wasn't aware that I needed an invitation."

"Well, since you're the  _villain_  in  _our hideout_ , yeah, I'd say you need an invitation." Artemis snarked back, a scowl lighting up her own features. She was one of the few people who somehow looked prettier when she was angry. There was some sort of angry passion that just lit up her features and brought a whole new light to her face. Robin, however, looked better when he was happy. There was the way that his mask crinkled the tiniest bit in the corners and the way all of his teeth were on proud display. Wally imagined that his eyes danced with mirth when he was happy. Which was a weird thought. And irrelevant.

Wally was trying to think of a comeback when Roy saved him, "I'll give him an invitation, then. We haven't worked on his bow and arrow skills in a while. Might as well use this time to keep practicing, right?"

"Right." Wally nodded, trying to tuck his smug smile away.

Artemis stared between the two of them incredulously before turning all of her attention on Roy, "You're teaching  _him_  how to shoot?"

Roy shifted uncomfortably, and it was more amusing than it should have been seeing how Artemis cowed him, "Look, we were waiting for something and we were bored, and he was so insistent on wanting to learn, so I taught him. Not that it's any of your business! I can do what I want with my criminal informants."

Artemis just shook her head, tossed her hair, and walked off muttering, "Unbelievable."

Roy made a face at her retreating back and said, "Coming Momentum?"

"Yep." Wally responded, already setting off towards Artemis's retreating back. He vaguely heard Roy telling Robin that he didn't need any more help watching Wally and that the three of them would be fine. Then Roy lowered his voice even further and Wally lost the conversation.

After a few more seconds, Roy caught up with Wally, long legs propelling him faster than Wally could manage at this point in time. He squashed down the momentary panic that came with the thought of not being able to run and tried to focus on following Artemis instead.

That focus was broken when Roy asked curiously, "So, what's up with you avoiding Robin?"

"I'm not avoiding him!" Wally said, entirely too quickly and entirely too defensive to be written off as the truth. Roy just raised an un-impressed eyebrow at him and Wally squared his shoulders a little, doing his best to exude a 'back off' vibe. Apparently, Roy was immune to that vibe because he just kept staring Wally down. Eventually, Wally scowled and relented, "I'm not avoiding him. I just… last night – or, I guess, early this morning – when Aqualad and Robin were bringing me to the infirmary… I… I freaked out." Even now, Wally's cheeks were tinting pink at the memory, "There wasn't even really anything for me to freak out about, but I did and it was stupid and I just don't want to be reminded of that every time I talk to Robin since he's obviously concerned."

There was concern lighting the crevices of Roy's face, making his expression softer, "What did you freak out about? Is everything okay?"

"It's fine." Wally scowled, "It's fine and I'm fine and everything's fine. It was stupid."

"That kind of stuff is never stupid." Roy argued, "What triggered it?"

"I don't see why you need to know." Wally shot back, cheeks still slightly red.

Roy's jaw clenched, "I don't think it should matter if I  _need_  to know, but I'm your friend. I just want to help."

"Maybe I don't want help. Actually, scratch the maybe. I  _don't_  want help." Wally threw back, getting frustrated with the turn in conversation.

Roy took a deep breath, eyes shutting, and paused for a moment before continuing, "Okay. You don't want my help. That's okay. But could you at least consider taking my help? For me? Because I want to help. I want to help because I'm your friend."

Wally side-eyed Roy, not quite sure where all of this was coming from. Roy was impulsive and a hot-head and not at all this carefully controlled creature that was standing next to him. A little worried and a lot confused, Wally answered slowly, "Yeah, okay. I'll think about it. Just not right now. I just want to shoot some arrows right now." In truth, he never planned to talk to Roy about this. First of all, he knew that Roy and Robin were good friends and he knew that Roy would get it out of Robin if he didn't get it from Wally. Second of all, Wally didn't know a lot about the whole friend thing, but he was pretty sure that friends didn't need to know that kind of stuff. And if friends did need to know all that, then Wally wasn't sure he wanted friends.

And then they were at the training room and it didn't matter anymore. The two moved into familiar patterns of setting up a couple targets and getting the bow and arrow ready. Wally was distantly aware of Artemis shooting perfect bullseyes from increasingly ridiculous positions. It made sense that she'd try to get used to shooting from weird angles because things didn't always work out perfectly during a fight, but it was ridiculous to watch in a training room.

Then Wally was shooting his own arrows (from a normal position, thankfully) and it was taking all of his energy to make sure that he wasn't going to accidently go wide and kill someone, though, luckily, the arrows were blunt.

For just a moment, he let everything else wash away and just let the repetitive motions lull him. He needed this. He needed something to relax him. And when the three of them were working through their frustrations with physical exertions in silence, Wally felt the world start to fall away. In a moment, there was nothing left but him and he felt free for the first time in a long,  _long_  time. When the Rogues had taken him in, he'd been abrasive and reluctant, but the truth was that he wanted a family. He wanted  _someone_ to be there for him, with him. And the Rogues had been perfect for that, despite the issues that have occurred. And then the Light was that for him. He had people there for him and he was there for them and he'd wanted that.

But he'd also gone two years alone. From the time when he escaped the labs to the time that he'd found himself in the Rogues' hideout, Wally had been traveling from city to city, country to country completely by himself. There had never been friends or confidantes. Occasionally, there were people who he would work with in exchange for money or food, but no one else. Despite a deeper longing for someone to be there with him, he'd gotten used to being alone. Now it was kind of hard to just be surrounded by people all the time.

The Rogues were a very connected family. No matter how much they argued and fought and disagreed, they did their best to be around each other as much as possible in order to make sure that they could work things out and be there for each other. That didn't leave a lot of time for himself, alone.

The Light weren't anything like a family, unless you made little mini families within the group (Cheshire, Icicle Jr., and Sportsmaster came to mind), but they didn't trust Wally. That meant that they made sure his timetable was jack full of things to do. He was constantly busy and being busy in the Light meant that he was with somebody, doing something. So, there wasn't really a lot of time for himself there either.

Here with the Team, they made sure that he was never alone because they didn't entirely trust him (with good reason, of course).

The only times he'd been able to really be by himself was when he went on runs and neither the Light nor the Team would allow that. He hadn't been on a real run since he was with the Rogues.

Now, he couldn't run at all. Not really; not how he wanted to. He was stuck in this uselessly slow body that couldn't do anything fast enough. He was completely useless, and it was killing him, slowly. There was no chance of escape. There was no chance at clearing his head. There was no chance of scratching that itch that was making him irritable and snappish and wrong-footed. There was nothing for him if he couldn't run.

And it all came back to that. It all came back to the fact that he couldn't run and how much that hurt him. There had been a time when he'd hated his powers, hated how they made him into something less than human, something hated. That time had past with the acceptance that there was no way back and the acceptance that with these powers, he could actually do something. He could be there for himself, so he wouldn't have to trust anyone else to be there for him. He knew they wouldn't be.

Wally was broken from his reverie by a yelp. Artemis had at some point (and how could Wally have let himself get so distracted that he stopped paying attention to what was around him?) climbed up on top of a rafter and was shooting from there. But she'd slipped.

Roy was on the other side of the gym, his legs already moving, and arms outstretched, but there was no way he would get there in time.

Just as Wally was thinking it, time slowed to an infinite crawl. Anxiety mixed with adrenaline and pumped through his veins. Time swelled and ebbed around him, the ancient waves of the Speed Force tickling his senses as adrenaline pushed past any sort of block he might have had. Lightning sparked behind him as his limbs started moving. Exhilaration fought with the adrenaline as he got closer to the spot where Artemis was going to land, blonde hair whirling and arms stretched out to slow her fall.

Exhilaration won out and Wally whooped with joy, pushing a little extra speed to get there in time.

A few more steps!

Wally smashed to the floor, sliding the last couple of inches as his power went out. Any hint of the Speed Force that might have entertained his senses for that brief moment had disappeared. He was breathing hard and his whole body was tingling as he adjusted to that abrupt start and stop of his powers.

Unfortunately, he was dragged back into the situation at hand by the feel of Artemis landing roughly in his still outstretched hands. He let out an 'oomf' sound and cradled Artemis back to him a little, tipping over with the momentum and ending up with Artemis sprawled on top of him breathing hard. He looked up a little to check that she was okay before he let his head fall back to the floor, grunting a little as it hit harder than he'd expected it to.

As the world slowed down around him, Wally heard Roy cursing as he finally reached them. He helped Artemis get off Wally as the latter just lay on the ground, winded, ribs hurting worse than ever. Slow healing was  _really_  annoying. How did anyone actually heal? They just kept getting more injured the longer he tried to heal. It was ridiculous.

Suddenly, Artemis was kneeling next to him, helping Roy get him up. Her voice was young and still slightly shaky with adrenaline and fear, "You caught me."

"Yep." Wally gasped, "And I immediately regretted it. You are  _way_  heavier than you look. I feel like I've had a rhino dropped on me."

Artemis looked like she wanted to punch him, but refrained. Secretly, Wally was just proud that he'd managed to nick a couple of her hairs while she was standing up. She'd never know. Look at them ninja skills. Accidental ninja skills, but still.

Eventually, Artemis rolled her eyes and said, "Maybe if you knew how to actually catch someone instead of basically letting them fall on you, you wouldn't have this problem."

Wally stared at her incredulously, "At least I'm not falling out of beams in the ceiling! I'm not stupid enough to go up there in the first place!"

"It's not that you're not stupid, it's that you're not skilled enough." Artemis shot back smugly.

"Neither are you, apparently." Wally sneered.

Artemis scowled, "At least I can hit a target."

"How did this get to our archery skills?" Wally wondered out loud.

"Did you notice how you didn't deny what I said?" Artemis inquired sweetly.

"Did you notice how you've been trained to do this for a lot longer than me?" Wally inquired just as sweetly back. Artemis growled. They lapsed into silence, staring each other down. After a moment, their eyes widened and they both turned to look at the oddly silent Roy. He normally did his best to diffuse situations like that. He never just sat there silently while they argued.

Roy was watching Wally with an inscrutable look, hand carefully still on his bow and quiver. When he realized that they'd both turned to look at him, Roy frowned and said carefully, "Momentum. You used your powers to save Artemis."

Wally's eyes widened as he remembered Batman's threat of an inhibitor collar once his powers came back. He hastened to assure Roy, "They're not back! I swear I don't have my powers back. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was the adrenaline that spiked past whatever block I have on my power. Maybe my powers are getting closer to being back. Maybe it's just another speedster mystery that we'll just have to put down to the Speed Force being weird. I don't know. But my powers aren't back. They aren't."

Artemis was watching him with wide eyes, halfway between defensive and confused, "Why are you trying so hard to convince us that you don't have your powers back?"

Wally watched them carefully, resisting the urge to scoot back in case they interpreted the movement as a threat. He didn't get a chance to answer before Robin walked into the room, expression open and carefree. That expression went away when he saw Roy on the defensive and Wally sitting up on the ground, face probably pale from the pain of his ribs.

Robin asked curiously, "What's going on here?"

"What did you come down here for?" Roy demanded, ignoring the question.

The whites of Robin's mask narrowed, but he didn't comment on the dismissal, instead answering, "Batman wants to see Wally."

Roy and Wally exchanged startled glances. There was no way that Batman already knew about him using his superspeed, was there? That would be partially awesome and partially terrifying (and partially really bad for Wally). They didn't say anything, though, and Roy stood. He and Artemis helped Wally stand up, the speedster slightly curved over with a hand on his ribs. Robin was watching the whole thing with a concerned expression, but he carefully didn't say anything.

The four of them headed up through the base, walking towards the main room with the zeta beams. Standing there, dark and imposing and angry, was Batman. Red Tornado was standing off to one side of Batman and Black Canary was with the other members of the Team off to the side.

Batman opened his mouth to say something, but Black Canary interrupted him, "Are you okay, Momentum?"

Wally nodded, cowed a little by the glare that Batman had originally set on Black Canary before moving it onto him. Batman spoke once it was clear that Black Canary was done, "What were you making in the lab this morning?"

Wally's heart started beating faster. He kept his voice carefully even as he responded, "I was making a lotion."

"And what was this lotion supposed to do?" Batman growled. Wally felt like he was six years old and his father was questioning him even though they both knew that Wally was going to answer one of the questions wrong and end up beaten on the floor.

Despite that, Wally answered clearly, "It was supposed to mask someone's DNA. I explained all of this to Black Canary as I was making it."

Batman was decidedly unimpressed when he asked, "And did you explain to her that you were making it with the intention of using it on yourself to trick the zeta beams?" Wally's whole world spun to a stop.

He couldn't quite get his denials out fast enough. Black Canary looked at him with a hurt expression, "Is that really what you were planning?"

Wally finally found his voice, "I told you before: it had been something I'd been theorizing on for a long time. I was anxious, and science helps me relax."

Robin's voice was laced with the same hurt as Black Canary's when he held out his arm, "Did you really think that our cameras weren't outfitted with night vision?" There, hovering above his slightly shaking arm was a hologram of the video feed. It showed Wally early in the morning tinkering with the zeta beam transporters.

Defeated, Wally closed his eyes and let his shoulders slump. He swallowed harshly and then stared defiantly at the gathered group, "What did you expect? I'm a villain. I'm going to try to escape." Black Canary's own eyes were shut, and her expression was disappointed. Wally felt like this was what disappointing one's mother felt like. Superboy was staring at him like he'd just popped the half-Kryptonian's balloon or something. The others weren't much better. Artemis in particular seemed as if it was her world that had just shattered. Robin looked physically sick.

Roy, though, was the worst. His expression was completely blank. Wally's heart beat in his chest as he watched his friend. After a moment their eyes met, and Wally could see the indecision that was warring in the archer's eyes. Wally's own eyes widened, and he shook his head slightly, breath thinning out even further. No way. No. He wouldn't.

Then Roy closed his eyes, expression pained, and turned to Batman, "When we were practicing archery, Artemis fell off a beam in the ceiling. Momentum used superspeed to save her. He says that it was a one-off and his powers aren't working anymore."

Wally stared at Roy, feeling betrayed on every level. How could he? How  _could_  he?  _This_  was why heroes would always be worse than villains. With villains, betrayal and disappointment are a guarantee. With heroes, there's always an extra layer of hurt when they betray you or disappoint you because they were supposed to be better than that. They weren't better than that. They were worse.

Artemis was watching him with a confused expression, still not quite sure why it mattered so much that people knew. Robin and Aqualad were staring between Roy and Wally with a dawning horror. Zatanna and Miss Martian were staring at Artemis, trying to figure out if she was really okay. Black Canary was watching Batman with a careful expression, mouth drawn into a tight line.

Batman… Batman was stone. There was no indication on those unmoving features as to what he was thinking, and Wally felt something inside him curl up and die at the sight. There was a moment where everyone stood frozen, a tableau of misery.

Then Batman started moving towards Wally, expression dark and serious. Batman said seriously, "Hold him."

Breath quickening, Wally scrambled to the side, trying to avoid Roy's arms as they reached out for him.

After a confused moment, the others joined in Roy's aim to catch him. Wally felt surrounded, trapped. Adrenaline burst to life in his veins and the world slowed down. Wally's body didn't speed up to match it. Why wasn't his speed working? He was certain that adrenaline was the key.

Scrambling in a different direction, Wally ran. He wasn't sure where he thought he was going since there was no escape from this cursed prison, but he ran anyways.

He didn't even make it out of the room before Miss Martian was lifting him up with her mind, Superboy coming right behind her to reach around and wrap Wally in a backwards hug in order to stop the struggling ginger from wriggling free.

Not quite accepting defeat, but not willing to completely throw away his pride, Wally quieted his struggles and hung limply in Superboy's arms as Batman came closer. In his hands was that hated inhibitor collar.

Cautiously, almost gently, Batman clipped the inhibitor collar around Wally's neck, permanently cutting off all chance of escape.

That was it. That was any chance of a plan gone.

Even after Superboy set him down and Batman left, Wally didn't say anything. He was just… he was numb. He couldn't believe that had just happened. That couldn't have. It… it just… What did Wally expect? He should have known better. This was why he didn't get close to anyone. This was why he didn't let his walls down. No one really cared about him and they never would.

No matter what the others said to him, he remained stubbornly silent.

AAAAAA

Artemis had no idea what had just happened. She didn't understand what had caused Wally to freak out so much. Were inhibitor collars that bad? She hadn't thought that there was that much of a problem. But then Wally's eyes had widened like he'd been stabbed, and he'd started running, eyes widening further like he'd expected to be moving faster than he had. He'd struggled and punched and kicked Superboy before just suddenly going limp. And now he wasn't doing anything. He wouldn't even talk to Robin which was obviously tearing the kid up. The whole situation was just a mess and Artemis didn't understand it.

After it had become obvious that Momentum wasn't going to be talking to anyone any time soon, Red Arrow had stormed out of the room, Black Canary following quickly behind, after taking a brief moment to talk to Aqualad. She was probably making sure that Aqualad would keep Momentum from escaping or causing trouble.

Robin tried talking to Momentum a couple times, but after realizing that there was no chance that the ginger was going to start talking, Robin's shoulders had slumped, and he'd slunk off to the living quarters of the Cave.

Aqualad had somehow shifted them to the kitchen/living room area and M'gann was trying to convince Wally to eat something, but he was just sitting there listlessly. The atmosphere was tense and silent as someone turned the TV on and they all just sat there.

Artemis used the moment to try to come to terms with what had all just happened.

She'd been terrified when she started falling. She didn't think that she was going to die or anything because she wasn't  _that_  high up and she knew how to fall correctly to lessen the damage, but it was still going to hurt a lot. There had been a good chance that she was going to break something on her way down and that would have really, really sucked. She would have been benched and her mom would have had to take care of her and that wouldn't have been fair. Her mom was still trying to figure out things with her paralysis and although she asked Artemis to not treat her any different, Artemis couldn't help but try to make things easier for her mom. It was just how things went.

But then there had been warm arms colliding with her instead of the unyielding floor. Artemis's eyes had flown open and she'd stared at Wally as he let out a small sound and tipped backwards a little bit, curling just a little to make sure that it was him that slammed into the floor and not her.

The breath had obviously been knocked out of him and his skin had paled dramatically, showing that he was probably in pain. All that Artemis could see, though, was the expression on Wally's face in the moment that he'd caught her. He'd been elated about something, but there was something set and serious in his expression. He was being genuinely careful, and he'd definitely cared about whether or not she'd been hurt.

Then they'd made it to the main room and she'd found out that he'd been plotting a way to escape that would have probably worked if the lotion thing hadn't exploded. He'd been so close to escaping and she hadn't even known. With all the precautions in place, it hadn't even really occurred to her that he  _could_  escape. It made everything kind of crash back into focus. It made her remember who he was. As stupid as he acted and as weak as he seemed, he really wasn't. This was the agent of the Light who had been the most successful. He had an unbelievable number of successful missions under his belt for the time he'd been with the Light. And those were only the ones that they knew about. Before that, he'd been a great member of the Rogues. Within the few months he'd been with the Rogues, he'd gained a name for himself in the criminal underworld for his skills with chemical warfare and negotiations. He was a natural at the supervillain business who had grown into his skin under excellent tutelage and guidance.

At the same time, despite everything she knew about him (which, shockingly, wasn't all that much; not even the Flash knew where he'd been for the four years between disappearing and becoming a Rogue), she couldn't help but think of how he'd looked when he'd caught her. That serious expression. That joy (that she now assumed came from his sudden burst of power). He looked so young in that t-shirt and sweatpants, feet bare and skin pale. He was her age.

Then her irritation with him would set in, reminding her that he was a perv who was too weak to say no to the villain world and instead turn to being a hero or just being neutral. She'd remember her mental battle where she'd decided that she wouldn't accuse him of anything because she couldn't accuse her mom. There was still irritation left over from that, though. It was hard to let go of the curling bitterness of him getting a free ride when she'd worked so hard for her redemption.

Then she'd remember the panic that had lit up his face when Batman had come at him with the inhibitor collar and she'd think that maybe this wasn't the free ride she was assuming it to be. She'd overheard Robin and Aqualad talking about Momentum falling into a flashback in front of the infirmary. It made her heart clench as she thought of all the reasons someone could have for being afraid of an  _infirmary_. What had he been through that led him here? What pushed him down the path he'd taken?

Artemis had no idea. She didn't know a thing about Momentum and that irked her more than his personality. She couldn't get a proper read on him because he blew any theory she made out of the water every time she finalized one. He had so many facets and expressions that it was hard for her to tell which one (if any) was the real one. She sometimes wondered if he even knew.

Biting her lip, Artemis glanced over at Momentum.

At some point during her inner reflections, Robin had returned and was currently curled up on the arm of the sofa next to Momentum. He was animatedly watching the soap opera that someone had let M'gann put on, occasionally whispering things to Wally. The speedster normally didn't react, but once, when Robin had already turned away, disappointment darkening his features, Artemis saw Momentum give the tiniest smile.

She reflected on those two. It was obviously hard for Robin to be friends with a villain, especially a jaded one who was intent on pushing everyone away like Wally was. Equally, though, it was obviously hard for Momentum to even have friends at all. She was amazed that the friendship they had was still lasting. Then again, seeing the soft, sad glance that Robin sent Momentum, something infinitely caring still masked with friendship hidden in the expression, maybe it wasn't so surprising that the friendship was still going.

Artemis smiled to herself. She so shipped that.

RRRRRR

Roy had just finished fending Dinah off, convincing her to let him have some time to himself. He appreciated her concern, but he could handle himself. Even if he wasn't entirely impressed with himself at the moment.

The look on Wally's face when the ruby archer had told Batman that Wally had used his powers. If he hadn't known better, he'd have said that he'd just stabbed the kid. It wasn't like he'd known that Batman had an inhibitor collar handy to stick on him! He should have assumed, and probably had assumed somewhere deep inside him, but he'd still done it anyways.

Besides, he hadn't thought that it would be that traumatizing for Wally. He had no idea that an inhibitor collar would terrify him so much that he'd actually try to run away from them despite the fact that he knew that there was no chance of escape.

Watching him try to run away, watching him struggle in Superboy's grasp had been one of the most painful things Roy had ever had the misfortune to watch. Every desperate, heaving breath and every sharp turn to avoid reaching arms had been a knife straight through Roy's heart. He wasn't sure that there was even a heart left. He'd certainly felt heartless when he saw that Wally refused to talk to anyone after the inhibitor collar.

Jaw set, and fists clenched, Roy tried to get control of himself before he started spiraling. He breathed carefully, trying to pull himself together.

The ringing of a phone interrupted his attempts. Closing his eyes to muffle the irritation, he snapped the phone open and said irritably, "What?"

The voice when it responded, was familiar in a dangerous kind of way for a split second before the memory of understanding was swept away under the words that were spoken, " _Broken arrow._ "

Roy blinked rapidly. The phone was gone, and he had somehow ended up in his room. There wasn't anyone else in there with him, and nothing seemed to have been messed with. The clock, though, said that it had been almost three hours since he'd last been aware of what he'd been doing.

Eyes wide and breath harsh, Roy curled into himself on his bed and just hoped and prayed that, wherever he'd gone, whatever he'd done, no one had been hurt.


	42. Save Him

WWWWWW

Wally felt like a douche. That was probably because he was being a douche to Robin. The kid had tried to make him feel better after the whole inhibitor collar thing, but Wally had just ignored him the entire time. It wasn't fair to Robin. It wasn't fair that Robin had to deal with a friend who was so moody and confrontational and so completely not what Robin deserved.

Just, between everything that had happened, Wally wasn't really feeling up to dealing with people. He was so sick and tired of the Team's hideout that he wanted to claw his own eyes out. He just wanted  _out_. He needed it like a physical thing. His powers had been gone, but the inhibitor collar still felt like it had taken something vital from him, tearing him away from any chance at happiness he might have felt. It had only been on for two hours and the temptation to rip the thing off, despite the burning, stinging pain of electrocution that would accompany it.

Wally had escaped the living room and had been locked back in his small bedroom for the time being, pacing the short distance between each wall with the air of a trapped tiger, waiting to spring itself on its next victim.

He really needed to get out of here. He was starting to compare himself to a tiger.

Luckily, his devolution into insanity was stalled by the sound of someone knocking on his door. Scowling, Wally called out, "Why do you even bother knocking? It's not like I could open the door for you anyways?"

Whoever it was didn't answer, simply going through the process of getting the door open. Wally narrowed his eyes and crept towards the bed, wanting a corner of the room behind him. He got the strangest feeling about whoever was going to come in through the door. It was almost like he felt threatened, but that was weird. There wasn't any sort of threat in the Team's hideout. No one here wanted to actually hurt him.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Wally tensed himself, ready to fight. What he didn't expect, though, was for Roy to come through the door. Confused at the fact that the feeling of danger didn't go away, Wally loosened his stance and walked back towards the middle of the room, "Roy? What's wrong?"

As mad as he was at the archer, Wally couldn't deny that the loose, empty expression on Roy's face worried him. It did look oddly familiar, though…

Roy stopped in the middle of the room, eyes scarily focused on Wally, "The zeta beams have been reset to allow you through them. Your powers will return on the day after tomorrow. Escape then. Return to the base."

Wally's eyes widened as he realized what was going on. A melancholy note entered his voice when he said, "They activated you, didn't they? Must have figured out that I was with you guys and that you were all here with me. Of course. Well, mission accomplished, or message received or whatever. Go on back to wherever you were before this." He sighed, plopping back on his bed as Roy robotically did what had been asked of him.

That blank expression had been familiar because it was the same as any time Wally saw Roy when he'd been activated. That didn't happen all to often, mainly because the Light didn't really trust Wally with Roy's activations, but still. The times he did see it were enough for a hundred lifetimes. He  _hated_  seeing Roy like that. It wasn't natural. It wasn't the Roy he became friends with. It was wrong on so many levels.

Wait. Wait, wait,  _wait_. Did Roy say that Wally was going to get his powers back the day after tomorrow? He did, didn't he? Wally was going to get his powers back in just one more day!  _One more day_! That was probably why his powers had started kind of working again. They were probably starting to break through whatever it was that was blocking his powers in the first place. Wally narrowed his eyes. How did Roy, well, the Light, know when Wally's powers were going to come back? How could they possibly know that his powers were out, that they were permanently dysfunctional? Roy could have told them, but that still didn't give any explanation as to how they knew that his powers would come back at a specific time.

There was no doubt in Wally's mind anymore. The Light had somehow caused his powers to go defunct for that brief period. The Light had manipulated his ability – the only thing in this world that he could trust – and took it away from him when he needed it the most. They set him up!

No wonder there had been so many heavy hitters on that simple mission! The Light was going to knock his powers out and they needed all the others to protect him when his powers went out. They hadn't been expecting the Team to attack. They had probably planned to turn his powers back on before he made the connection and blamed him. That's why they did it on a mission. There was probably something in the surroundings they could blame on his lack of power and the powers would have turned on in a moment or two anyway.

Then the Team had attacked, and something had happened that meant that his powers weren't coming back on when they were supposed to. But what?

Eel! Patrick had probably done something to it. That would be why he left the Light. It wasn't because Wally had finally been retrieved by the "good guys". It was because he'd revealed himself as a hero and had been run out by the group. The Light probably had hits on him even now. Patrick had done something to prevent his powers from returning. And now the Light had almost fixed it and they wanted Wally to come back the day after tomorrow. They wanted him to come back as if there were nothing wrong!

How could they possibly think that he would be that stupid? There was no way that he was going to go back to the Light! They took away the thing that mattered the most to him and thought that he wouldn't have a problem with it. Worse, they thought that he was too stupid to figure it out. Even before Roy practically confirmed it, Wally had been questioning the situation. It wouldn't have taken him much longer to come to the conclusion on his own.

Unbelievable! Wally wanted to scream and rage and punch something. Of all the… Maybe they weren't so wrong in thinking him stupid enough to not figure it out. He was stupid enough to let them mess with him. They'd been experimenting on him and manipulating him, and he'd  _let them_.

He just… he was just so  _useless_! How could he do that? How could he continue to let people walk all over him and do whatever they want to him? All his life he'd been used and abused, and he was sick of it. Wally sat down hard on his bed, head in his hands.

What could he do? Everything everyone had ever said about the Light was true. He'd always known it, of course. He knew that the Light was made of liars and thieves and murderers. There were people there who would watch a child burn and laugh. The Light was made of monsters and Wally had attracted their attention.

He'd given himself to them completely. He'd formed connections in the Light and allowed them to take over his life. Wally was completely and utterly screwed. There was no way out. They'd never let him go.

Wally scrubbed at his face again, willing the hot sting of tears away even as he felt one or two slipping down his cheeks.

There really was no escape. And he wasn't going to drag anyone else down with him. He would never contact the Rogues again. He would minimize his contact with Cameron and Cheshire. Well, he wasn't sure if he could minimize contact with Cheshire. She was with him practically everywhere.

Wally closed his eyes as more tears slipped out. How stupid could he get?  _Cheshire_. How much time had the woman spent with him? Long enough to manipulate him into doing everything her boss wanted. She was just as worthless pawn, same as him. She was just as trapped by the system as he was. The only thing was that she didn't seem to care. She seemed perfectly content with her situation. Cheshire had no problem with being controlled and turned into some heartless monster that can never be redeemed. How could she be okay with that?

Wally sighed bitterly. He was going to find out pretty soon. He swiped futilely at the still falling tears and clenched his hair in his hands.

Was this really the end for him? Was there no way out? Had he doomed himself with his own stupidity and naivety?

A brief flash of a bright smile and a domino mask dominated his vision, but he shook the thought away. Robin couldn't help him. One hero couldn't help Wally escape the entirety of the Light. The group was too powerful.

A traitorous part of his brain, still punch drunk off of the brief moment of having his powers back, whispered hopefully that maybe the rest of the Team would help him.

Wally shook his head, trying to rid himself of the idea. The Team wouldn't help him. He would tell them what was going on and they'd finally demand answers. They'd demand answers and he'd give as many as he could and then they'd try to fight the Light. Either they'd lose, and Wally would be taken back by the Light, unable to resist against a punishment he was sure to get, or they'd win against the Light and he'd be put in prison because he'd be useless. Worse, Patrick would tell them how he stopped Wally's powers and the heroes would disengage his speed to stop him from being a threat.

Wally wouldn't survive that. And he knew that's what the heroes would do. Today was the perfect example for that. They had no qualms taking away a person's only grip on sanity just so they could feel a little safer even though his powers hadn't been back. They hadn't been back, and the heroes had just shoved the inhibitor collar on! They would do worse if he tried to have them help him with the Light.

The left Wally with two highly unappealing options: he could go back and pretend that nothing had changed and just let them continue to manipulate him for the rest of his life, or he could go back and confront them about it, try to do something to stop them, to take them out. Neither was going to end well for him. He just decided which of the two evils he wanted to take. Either way, he would be giving up any real connection he had to the heroes. To his Uncle. To his friend, Roy, who would need him when he found out about the whole clone thing. To his best friend, Robin, who just wanted someone to talk to. To Superboy, who wouldn't have anyone to talk hockey with. To Zatanna, who wouldn't have someone to help with chemistry. To Patrick, who had helped him through so many tough spots.

He'd have to give everything up. And he didn't want to.

Furious with his lot in life, with the situation he'd gotten himself into, Wally turned around and slammed his fist into the wall, feeling his knuckles split open and his bones twinge with the action. By that point, Wally was sobbing furiously, letting himself cry like he hadn't done in a long time. He was just… he was so done. He was done with everything. He was done.

He was sobbing so hard that he didn't hear the door being unlocked. At the last second, he heard the door actually opening. He quickly held in his sobs, trying to prevent it from turning into hiccups. Wally turned his back to the door and hid his bloody knuckles. He closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his stomach to stop himself from making some sort of embarrassing noise.

"Momentum?" An overly formal tone inquired from the doorway. Aqualad continued when there was no response, "Superboy heard a loud sound from your room. Are you alright?"

Wally swallowed a few times before he was able to answer with only a slight rasp, "I'm fine."

"You are not hurt?" Aqualad asked curiously, a tinge of concern lending the question a warmer tone. Wally didn't want to hear a warmer tone.

He snapped at the hero, "I'm  _fine_. Go away!"

Aqualad hovered in the door for a moment before asking, "Would you like me to retrieve Black Canary?"

"Why would I want  _her_? Go  _away_ , Aqualad." Wally snarled, the memory of Black Canary's disappointment still too bright and painful in his mind to contemplate talking to the woman herself.

After a moment, Aqualad stepped further into the room, letting the door shut behind him. His voice was somehow warm and stern at the same time, "I believe that you need to speak to someone. You should not bottle these issues up. You should speak to someone about them."

"Like it or not, I'm not going to be talking about my  _problems_  with you, Fishboy. How many times do I have to say it?  _Go away_!" Wally heaved, tears starting to sting his eyes again. Why wouldn't he just  _leave_ already? Wally could handle it on his own. He'd been handling things on his own for as long as he could remember. He might not do it all that well – as evidenced by the situation he found himself in now – but he could do it. He  _could_. He swore he could do it. He swore he wouldn't need anyone else. He promised himself and he's the only one he can trust to keep a promise. Wally wasn't going to break a promise to himself.

For a long time, the only sound that broke the charged silence of the air was Wally's desperate gasping breaths as he tried to keep his tears in. Then Aqualad broke the silence, voice sharp and soft and everything all at once, "I am a soldier of Atlantis. I gave myself completely to my King. The only time I disobeyed him was to form this Team. I agreed to become his sidekick on the land, to become Aqualad. I do not have parents to watch over me. I rarely see my best friends anymore. Because of all of this, I find it difficult to express myself. I find it difficult to allow myself to look weak in the eyes of others, despite the fact that I know that they will not see it that way. Emotions are not a weakness and they can actually be a great strength if one knows how to utilize them correctly. One must first be willing to show them, though, for that to happen."

There was a long pause, and Wally figured that Aqualad wanted him to respond, but he didn't. The lump in his throat would have prevented him from speaking even if he'd wanted to. Aqualad continued, "You want to be alone. You believe that you will be better like this, safer. You are wrong. Friendship is a strength if you allow it to be. There are people in the world that you can trust. We can be those people for you, but you must let us in first. We want to help you, Momentum. We want to save you. Please let us. Please let us in. At least let us try." Aqualad obviously didn't expect anything that time, as he stood up immediately after saying his piece, leaving the room a second later, the door locking in place behind him.

Let them in? Let them in so they could tear him apart from the inside? No way. And how could Aqualad say that friends and emotions are  _strengths_? They were nothing but weaknesses. Having friends and letting your emotions out for people to see were just giving the enemy ammunition to destroy you with. Just because Aqualad was too naïve to see that didn't mean that Wally was going to fall for that. Friends were targets and emotions were cracks in the armor. There was nothing good in either of them. There never would be.

Feeling drained and entirely too depressed for finding out that he had a way to escape, Wally crawled under the covers of his bed, eyes pressed tightly closed and tears still squeezing past the lids. Useless. Pathetic. Pitiful. Stupid. So, incredibly stupid. Worthless. Too trusting. Weak. Pointless. Good for nothing. Hopeless. Incompetent. Meaningless. Waste of space. Gullible. Inconsequential. Powerless.

He vaguely heard the door being unlocked and opened behind him, but he didn't move, crying silently into his pillow. The near silent footsteps ghosting across his floor told him that it was Robin who had entered the room. Wally felt the bed dip as Robin crawled onto it, settling down on top of the covers, back pressed reassuringly to Wally's.

Wally wondered idly if this was what it was like to find strength from friends. He broke down completely, sobs racking his body and mind swirling with self-hatred and despair.

CCCCCC

Cameron shook silently, eyes pressed tightly shut and hand over his mouth. He couldn't believe he just did that. He'd just stolen Cheshire's phone and called Red Arrow. He'd said the activation code and made Red Arrow tell him where Wally was being kept. Then he had Red Arrow tell him the ways to get out. The place seemed to be pretty locked down.

So, he'd had Red Arrow change the zeta beam register, so Wally would be identified as an allowed traveler when he needed to escape. He'd made Red Arrow tell Wally when he was going to be getting his powers back and that the zeta beam was changed. He was completely screwed.

Cameron hadn't been high enough up in the organization to really know a lot about what was going on. He knew about his missions and maybe a few rumors that went around the grapevine. That was it.

But he'd been staying with Cheshire and Sportsmaster for a couple days now and even they couldn't hide everything. Sure, they were trained as ninja assassins, but that didn't mean that he hadn't picked up some skills of his own. It took a couple of small snatches of conversation for him to put it together, but he started to build a picture of what was really going on. The Light had been running experiments on Wally. They turned off his powers during the mission that the four of them had been on. Then Plastic Man had turned around and smashed the computers that were controlling Wally's powers. Plastic Man had purposely affected it, so the Team would be able to capture Wally. It turns out that Plastic Man was a hero who went in as a double agent.

He'd known that the mole was a clone and that Wally had known the person relatively well before joining up the Light, but he hadn't known that it was Red Arrow.

Cameron had made some connections on his own, too. Ever since the Team captured Wally, they'd been silent. No one had seen hide nor hair of any of the mini heroes, nor Black Canary, nor Red Arrow. That probably meant that they were all somewhere guarding Wally. That meant that Cameron could use Red Arrow to let Wally escape. He wasn't going to let his friend sit in that prison any longer. He just had to intercept Wally before the speedster made it back to the Light. He was sure that Wally would get his hint: there was a way that the Light knew when his powers were going to come back. Cameron didn't want to just out and say it or just out and warn Wally about going back to the Light because there was always the chance that Cheshire let him steal her phone and this was all a test for him.

There was a chance that all phone calls were recorded or that there was a camera in this safe house that he hadn't found yet. There were all those chances and, as much as he wanted to save his friend, Cameron didn't want to get himself killed. At least this way, he could claim reasonable doubt. He hadn't technically done anything wrong beyond going behind the highest-ranking agent's back. In his defense, he'd been trying to save his friend. He found out that the other agents knew all these things and weren't doing anything about it. He was so desperate to save Wally that he didn't think about asking Cheshire and Sportsmaster for permission.

He didn't think about what this would do to their mole.

Because this would  _ruin_ the Light's mole. The League would be super confused as to how the zeta beams let Wally through. They'd investigate, and they'd realize that Red Arrow was the one who did it. The League would finally find the mole that had been hiding under their noses the whole time. The Light would lose a vital piece of their big huge plan. They'd be useless.

And Cameron would be dead. Even if he claimed ignorance of the magnitude of what he'd done, there were ways of finding out that he knew. He knew that Red Arrow was supposed to get onto the Justice League and take out all the members with some tech that the Light had made. Cameron knew that the entirety of the Light's plans would be useless without that technology. And there were plenty of telepaths on hand to discover that.

Cameron was completely screwed. There was no way for him to bluff his way out of this.

Then again, why even bother? He was sick of this life. He was sick of being controlled and manipulated. Everything he'd done since joining the Light had been choreographed by sick people who had no regards for the villains they worked with.

He wanted the rush of crime, needed the powerful feeling that came with a successful heist. He wasn't getting that at the Light. The little missions they were sent on gave him no satisfaction. He had no idea why he was stealing what he was stealing. He didn't really know what it was or how it was going to be used. The heists were more stealth than flair. There was nothing interesting. He never felt powerful, only used.

And that had become his life. And the Light was never going to let him leave.

He just had to hope and pray that Wally could figure this out. He would do his best to help him, but he was never all that good in the planning department. He was probably going to be a useless deadweight to his friend. But Cameron still needed Wally to help him, to save him from the Light. He needed  _someone_ to save him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, be expecting sporadic updates for a while. I'll try to update as often as possible, but AP Exams are stressful and take a lot of time, so my updates won't be as regular as I had been attempting.


	43. Win Together

WWWWWW

Wally was not prepared for the Boy Wonder to still be in his bed when he woke up. Not prepared at all. For a long moment, Wally's brain had temporarily shut down, screaming in panic about there being someone else in the room with him.

Then he'd remembered his melt-down the night before and resisted the urge to smash his face against the wall. He was such an idiot! Why did he keep breaking down here? That was their secret technique, wasn't it? The Team had said that they just wanted him to trust them, but they didn't. They just wanted to keep him in there while he got struck with claustrophobia and cabin fever and emotional blows until he just broke down completely and told them everything. That was their master plan, their evil move. He was just a pawn in their devious determinations.

Closing his eyes, Wally carefully scrubbed his face, trying to not move the bed around too much. What was he thinking? Why did he even care? This was his last day there anyways. All he needed to do was keep it together until then and then he could… he could… He still hadn't decided whether he was going to go with the whole 'give up completely and let them control him' approach or the 'don't let them do anything and instead try to fight against the system and probably get killed' approach yet. So, he needed to keep it together until he escaped and decided which of the two options he was going to take and then get to the Light. Maybe not necessarily in that order. Actually, he almost certainly was going to wait until after he'd gotten back to the Light before he made a decision on which option he was going to take. He'd always been a procrastinator.

Wally stretched out a little bit, again trying to not shift the bed so hard. Apparently, that was all for naught, because Robin let out a little snuffling noise when he moved, wiggling underneath the covers (which he definitely hadn't been underneath when he'd originally come to Wally's room) and rolling his shoulders slightly. Luckily, he hadn't woken up. Wally smiled down at Robin, a genuine curve of his lips. Robin looked so cute like this, all curled up and comfortable in Wally's bed.

Wait…

 _Wait_ …

That was not what Wally just thought. Did he just call his friend  _cute_? Did he just mentally specify that his friend was cute when his friend was in  _his bed_? There was something wrong with him. There was something genuinely wrong with him. He didn't even know Robin's name! He couldn't have a crush on him!

Wait, wait,  _wait_. No, no,  _no_. Wally did not have a crush on his best friend. It was misplaced affection because Wally wasn't used to liking people. He was projecting onto Robin because Robin was the one that he spent the majority of his time with. It had nothing to do with the fact that Robin was one of the funniest people he knew with his made-up words and his crazy explanations. It had nothing to do with the fun they had playing online games together. It had absolutely nothing to do with the way that Robin was the prettiest guy he knew with facial features that ticked off every box on his list.

Nothing at all. Sure. Now if only Wally could convince himself of that.

For a moment, Wally let himself look down at his friend and imagine. He imagined holding hands with Robin, eyes staring into Robin's mask, the two of them talking about everything and nothing at all under the sun.

Yep. That was it. Wally had a crush. The ginger speedster wrinkled his nose and threw his head back. He wasn't sure that he'd ever really had a crush before. He wasn't sure how serious it was or how to treat it. The only time anyone had really talked to him about crushes was when Hartley had occasionally ranted about one of his. But Hartley had never had a crush on his best friend. Besides, there was no way that Wally was going to be contacting Hartley anytime soon with the situation he was in, so, there was no way to get advice from the flute player about how to go about dealing with a crush. Wally would soon be trapped back with the Light and…

Oh… Well, in hindsight, it didn't really matter, did it? Wally was going to be stuck with the Light and there would be no point in trying to act on his crush.

Even if, by some miracle, the two of them could work out something while Wally was in the Light, that wasn't fair to Robin. Wally knew that Robin hated the Light and would do anything to make sure that Wally didn't go back to it.

He knew that a relationship couldn't really stay together when one of them was a villain and one was a hero. Sure, there were all those books where the 'star-crossed lovers' dealt with this kind of situation heroically and bravely, facing down hardships and eventually coming together in the end, but this wasn't a book. This was real life.

And Wally knew better than anyone how real life worked out.

There were so many ways that this could go bad. The most likely was that this was a one-sided crush and Wally was just setting himself up for disappointment. The next most likely was that Robin would just reject him out of principal, knowing what Wally is and who he wants to continue to be. Or maybe they try it out and a mission pits them against each other and they never want to talk again. Maybe Wally accidently hurts one of Robin's teammates in a battle. Maybe Robin arrests one of Wally's teammates. Maybe Wally goes against the Light and gets himself killed and Robin has to deal with all that by himself.

Maybe Wally was stupid for letting himself imagine, even for a second. There was no place that this relationship could go, and it was probably entirely in Wally's head anyways.

Why did he bother? Why did he hurt himself by hoping? He was so stupid and completely unrealistic and just… He needed to let go of his hope and just deal with things as they came to him.

This stupid, never-to-be fulfilled crush wasn't important at the moment and definitely didn't need to be acted on. He'd deal with that when he was back with the Light. Maybe Cameron would be willing to listen to him moan and complain about the unfairness of his life during a binge night with tons of snack food. That sounded like a good decision. That was definitely the way to maturely handle himself.

Wally snorted. Yeah, sure. Mature. Well, he didn't have to be mature. He was a teenage boy and he could mope about stuff if he wanted to.

His snort must have been what finally woke Robin up because the boy finally shifted into an upright position, blearily rubbing at his mask as if he'd forgotten that it was there. The whites of the mask narrowed for a second and then turned on Wally before widening again. Robin yawned, "Oh. Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."

"Pretty sure I'm the one who woke you up, dude. I just woke up a couple seconds ago." Wally answered back with a smile, eyes tracing those lips. It was amazing how much simply acknowledging a crush can do to one's observations of a person. The way Robin made his heart rush and his eyes widen was definitely a new development and probably wouldn't have been there if Wally hadn't realized that he had a crush on the boy. Ridiculous.

Robin hopped out of bed, rearranging his suit and idly combing his fingers through his hair as if that would help his hair look the least bit more manageable, "So, Wally, why don't we go get breakfast? It's late enough that probably at least one other person is awake. If not, then we'll just deal, okay?"

"Yeah, no problem." Wally said, getting up and stretching out, himself.

He was just cracking his knuckles when Robin asked carefully, "Hey, about last night… what were you so upset about? Is there anything I can help with?"

Again, Wally's mind flew to the idea that maybe these people could help him take down the Light, but he dismissed it. They would only make things worse than they already were going to be. But, at that question and the quiet concern wakening under the Boy Wonder's words, Wally came to a decision. He would fight the Light. He would take them down from the inside and he wouldn't let them control his life.

He couldn't look Robin in the eye (mask) today and then start fighting him the next day. And Wally knew that if he stayed in the Light for too long, then he'd turn into one of them. He wouldn't be a criminal anymore; he'd be a monster.

At some point, they'd have corrupted him enough that he'd kill just as effortlessly as Cheshire and they'd tell him to kill Robin or Flash or someone else and Wally would try to do it because he'd been so beaten down and conditioned by the Light that he wouldn't even consider anything else. And he didn't want that life. He didn't want to become the monsters that the Light fostered and helped grow. He wouldn't let them do that to him. Because he couldn't disappoint Robin that way.

Sure, it would disappoint the hero when Wally escaped and then never appeared again, either made to disappear by the Light or killed by them. It would certainly upset Robin if the brightly colored teen only saw Wally again in a body bag, but it was better than hurting Robin, or trying to hurt Robin. Wally would do anything to avoid that.

So, voice just as careful as Robin's, Wally answered nonchalantly, "Nah, it was just me getting upset over nothing. It's fine."

Robin stood there for another moment, expression searching and sad. Apparently, Robin found what he was looking for, but he didn't like it because his countenance crumpled into something infinitely sadder. But then he smiled and said, "Alright, let's go see what's for breakfast, yeah?"

Wally huffed out a small laugh, "Yeah."

AAAAAA

Artemis idly swirled the straw in her smoothie. M'gann was on a serious smoothie craze and Artemis could feel it going straight to her hips. She'd have to introduce the Martian to healthy smoothies. She was sure that after a few (hundred) tries the Martian would perfect them. Honestly, M'gann was a great cook and baker and anything else that has to do with food, but it just took her a while to get the recipe down. And she was just so ditzy that sometimes even if she had the recipe down, she'd mess it up by forgetting that the cookies were in the oven or whatnot. Eh, it meant that Artemis got to have a bunch of good food at least.

Artemis herself was a relatively okay cook, but it didn't touch M'gann's food. And Artemis's  _mom_? Well, Paula Crock spent a little too much of her youth being a criminal and too little of it learning how to cook. She was getting better, though, but the attempts weren't always safe for consumption.

That meant that Artemis was practically driven by survival to cook around the house, so all the meals were okay instead of awesome or even good. The two of them were figuring it out, though, and Artemis got to have M'gann's meals in the meantime. Occasionally, when M'gann was on a big cooking frenzy, Artemis could convince her to make a bunch of meals for her and her mother so the two of them had some edible food in the house. Artemis always felt bad doing that, though, like she was taking advantage of M'gann or something.

It was stupid, but she couldn't help it. She knew that M'gann had zero problems cooking for a friend, but Artemis also knew that the better thing to do would be to ask M'gann to teach her how to cook.

Hm… maybe she should really think about that. It wouldn't be that bad of an idea and she was sure M'gann wouldn't mind. Maybe they could make it a Team activity or something. It wasn't like no one could benefit from learning how to cook. Then again, there was that saying about too many cooks in a kitchen or whatnot. Well, it could be a girl bonding thing. Her, M'gann, and Zatanna. Yeah, that would be fun. The boys could be their taste-testers or something like that…

Artemis was torn out of her musings by Robin and Momentum coming into the room. At the same time. Both looking like they'd just rolled out of bed. Artemis asked with a smirk, "Just get out of bed?"

Robin, of course, didn't really react beyond cackling gleefully at her, but Momentum jumped, clutching a hand to his chest and turning his face away, jaw set. Artemis raised an eyebrow. Well, he was in one of his moods today. At least Momentum wasn't in that completely silent, dead mood that he'd been in the night before. Still, she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with a snippy, come-near-me-and-die Momentum either. Geez he was annoying.

Deciding to ignore the mood he was in, Artemis added, "I notice you didn't go back to your room last night, Robin."

Robin blushed slightly, the whites of his mask narrowing at her as he stuck his tongue out. Wally, though, set his jaw further, shoulders rising defensively. He hissed out, "You would notice, wouldn't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Artemis asked, affronted. He was being more of a douche than usual today.

Momentum rolled his eyes, "You know exactly what that means. You're a no-good busybody who can't do anything but cause trouble."

"Hey!" Robin said, pushing lightly on Wally's chest and settling him into a seat, "Let's wait until at least noon to start this up, yeah? It's too early to be fighting with each other." Artemis felt a warm thrill run through her at the thought that Robin had defended her to someone who he obviously liked better than her. Apparently, teams were pretty nice, and teammates were even better.

Artemis shrugged and went back to her smoothie, commenting idly, "Miss Martian said to tell you guys that there are smoothies for you two in the fridge if you want them. They've got your names on them and everything."

Robin glided over to the fridge and opened it, pouting when he saw the drinks, "How come Wally's is so much bigger than mine?"

"Because I actually need the nutrients, smart one." Momentum shot back, voice adorably fond. Artemis had to resist the urge to squeal.

Robin gave off the impression of rolling his eyes before dropping Momentum's drink off in front of him, "Here, have your ridiculously large drink. If you keep eating like this, you're going to get fat, powers or not."

Wally's jaw clenched at the mention of his powers, but he didn't say anything. Luckily, someone else burst in before the moment could become awkward.

Flash zipped into the room, grabbing the smoothie right out of Wally's hands, pulling his cowl down in the same movement, "I've been eating like this for years and I'm still not fat. Pretty sure it's an impossibility, honestly."

Momentum scowled, "Hey! Give that back!"

"Nope!" Flash smiled brightly, "I quite like it actually. What's it made of?"

"Maybe I'd have a better chance of telling if I had actually gotten a chance to taste it." Momentum scowled fiercer, setting a terrifying green glare on the other speedster. Robin tempered the glare by sharing his smoothie with the younger speedster.

Artemis put her chin in her hand and stared between the two speedsters, "You know, you two don't actually look related."

"We're not related by blood." Momentum answered immediately, "Just by law."

Flash almost looked hurt by the easy dismissal of their familial ties and Artemis couldn't help but sympathize. That had been brutal. Flash gave a slightly weak smile, "You should see my wife, though. Wally looks just like her. He could almost be her son they look so similar!"

Roy walked into the room at that moment, scratching his chin and frowning at the world in general, "What are we talking about?"

Evidently, Momentum was still mad about Roy telling Batman about his powers because his fists clenched, and his jaw tightened so much that Artemis could see a tendon. Robin announced cheerfully, "We were just talking about how similar Iris and Wally look. Barry said that Wally could practically be Iris's son with how similar they look."

Momentum slammed back his chair, standing up and ignoring the fact that the chair fell over with the movement. He growled out, "Well, it's a good thing that I'm not, then, isn't it? Wouldn't want to be more of a disappointment than I already am."

He stormed out of the room. Flash watched him with startled eyes, "I'll go after him." He gave the two boys an apologetic look before zooming after his nephew.

After a moment's pause, Artemis stood and said, "I'll watch the two of them, make sure everything goes alright." For once, she wasn't actually planning on snooping (mind, she'd take the opportunity while she was afforded it, but that wasn't her main plan). Roy and Robin had looked like they needed to talk, and she wasn't going to get between that. Maybe they'd figure something out to explain why Wally was in such a mood today.

Luckily, Flash had been forced to go Wally's speed since the kid didn't have his powers back, so, that meant that it wasn't hard for Artemis to catch up to them, watching them from a convenient pole and making sure that neither of them would be interrupted. They probably needed this moment.

Flash chuckled slightly as he slid down the wall next to Wally, "Reminds me of that time in Bhutran. Remember? You'd just run off from the Rogues after that little stint in Gorilla City. Ha, I told you about yourself. You asked why I was so determined to be there for you when you made it clear that you didn't want me there and I told you about the nephew that I'd failed and lost. I said that I'd keep pushing until you let me in because I wouldn't fail you too. Little did I know that I'd already failed you and that's why you didn't trust me enough to let me in." Artemis watched them sadly. What did Flash mean when he said that he failed Momentum?

Momentum didn't chuckle, but he didn't snap back either, "Yeah, I remember. We went for a run after that. That was the only time I've really run with someone."

"It feels good, doesn't it? To finally let loose and not be the only one? It's lonely otherwise. I mean, it feels good to just  _run_ , but it feels lonely unless there's someone else there." Flash responded. What did he mean by lonely?

Momentum's expression turned bitter, "Yeah, well, I guess I won't be rediscovering that feeling anytime soon." He yanked at his inhibitor collar, irritated. It left red scrapes on his neck.

"I'm sorry they had to put that on you." Flash said sincerely, gently grabbing Momentum's hand and placing it down in the younger's lap.

Momentum scowled, "No. You aren't. You didn't exactly have a problem putting it on me either. Besides, they didn't  _have_  to put it on. My powers weren't even back." He sounded like a pouting kid, but Artemis's interest was piqued. Flash had put an inhibitor collar on Momentum before?

Flash closed his eyes and ran a tired hand over his face and then up to rub at his neck, "Look, kid, there's something I've got to tell you about this inhibitor collar." Momentum's jaw clenched, but he didn't say anything, so Flash continued, "It's not as easy to get off as last time. I mean, we didn't think that inhibitor collars were that easy to get off in the first place because of the way they electrocute you horribly and painfully, but you had no problem ripping yours off regardless. So, we had to upgrade. If any part of that collar breaks, there's electrocution and a dart filled with enough sleeping gas to knock even me out. You try to get out of that collar and you're going to be sleeping for a while, okay?"

"Why bother telling me this? You're basically giving me an outline of what I need to do to get the thing off. Now I know what to avoid." Momentum sounded honestly confused and, now that Momentum had pointed it out, Artemis was too. If she had been given that little speech, she would have meekly chosen to not tear the thing off, not considered it a challenge to answer too. It always shocked her when she realized that the kid actually had some semblance of intelligence.

The Flash clapped a friendly hand on Momentum's shoulder, "Because those two aren't the only security measures." He grinned, wide and open, at Momentum, who just scowled back. After a second, the grin faded into something warmer, and Flash said, "Why try so hard to escape anyways? Are they not treating you right, here? Is this not nicer than being with the Light? Plastic Man's told us about how they tore you down at the Light, constantly making you work and running you ragged."

"Is this a kidnapping or a recruitment exercise?" Momentum asked irritably.

Flash grinned, "A little bit of both, I think."

"Awesome." Momentum muttered sarcastically.

Flash physically turned towards Momentum, asking again, "Seriously, why are you trying so hard to escape?"

After a moment, Momentum burst out with, "I don't belong here! I'm a villain, Uncle Barry, remember? I belong with other villains."

"Then go back to the Rogues! You were happy there until the Light manipulated you out of your happiness. You have to know that the Light did that partially to manipulate you, right?" Flash answered back carefully, voice forcibly even.

"No!" Wally said, standing and starting to pace, "My place is with the Light."

"No, it's not. How hard is it to see that they're bad for you?" Flash said, expression falling slightly.

"Look," Momentum said, fists clenching, and expression determined like he was genuinely trying to figure out the best way to explain this, "I'm good at being a villain with the Light. I'm one of their top members. I can get in and get out quick. My training has been progressing superfast with Cheshire as my trainer. I'm growing there."

"You mean they're turning you into a monster there." Flash said drolly, voice flat.

Momentum scowled, "It's not like I have that much of a choice either way! The Light wants me, so, the Light's getting me. And I'm not entirely opposed to that either."

"What do you mean 'not entirely opposed'? You can't honestly tell me that they treat you better than a different group would? You can get the training you want from another source, one that's less likely to kill you the moment your success rate goes down. You can be a good supervillain with the Rogues. You get all of that elsewhere. Why shouldn't you be entirely opposed? Besides, the Light doesn't have to get you. If they're defeated then-," Flash stopped, interrupted by Momentum.

Momentum sat down heavily, arguing, "If the Light is defeated, then I fall at the mercy of you  _heroes_. I can say goodbye to my freedom and my powers for the rest of my life, right there. If the Light loses, then I lose too."

"It doesn't have to be that way! We've rehabilitated villains before! You could be a hero with us!" Flash argued back.

"I don't think you get it, Flash! I  _don't want to be a hero_! I want to be a villain. It's fun! I don't have to care about other people. Rules don't apply to me! I don't want to be ' _rehabilitated_ '." Momentum shot back, expression tense.

Flash closed his eyes again and visibly gained control of himself. Artemis was just lucky that Flash wasn't speaking in speed talk like he sometimes did when he let his emotions run away with him. Flash continued at a much lower and calmer volume, "Wally. You didn't live with Iris and I for very long, but you lived with us long enough that I can tell some things." Wally shook his head, preparing an argument, but Flash raised a hand to forestall it, "I  _know_  that you would rather go back to the Rogues, but you think that you don't have that option. I  _know_  that part of the reason you don't want to go back to the Light is because you think they'll end up hurting us heroes. And I  _know_  that something made you lose any smidge of trust in the Light that you thought you had."

For a moment, the two stared at each other, lime green meeting baby blue, and Artemis held her breath, not wanting to break the moment. Eventually, Wally sighed and scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck just like the Flash had done earlier, "I'm still going to go back to the Light."

Flash's expression was pained when he asked, "Why?  _Why_  would you do that?"

"I don't think that you guys can defeat them." Wally said simply, shoulders shrugging easily.

"Why do you think that? Is there something you know that we don't?" Flash asked, instantly ready.

"There are a lot of things that I know that you don't and that you won't know because even if I told you their entire plan, you'd still lose against them. Because even if you think you've arrested everyone and even if you think you've taken them down, there will always be a contingency plan in place and a different set of people willing to take on the mantle of the leaders of the Light. You can take down a plan, but you can't destroy an idea." Momentum said, leaning back and putting a hand over his eyes. He suddenly asked, "Why do you bother? The villains are never going to stop. They're just going to get better every time you take them down. And there are always new ones, new people willing to be evil."

Flash frowned thoughtfully, "Why do  _you_  bother? The heroes are never going to stop. We're just going to be better every time you evade us. And there are always new ones, new people willing to save others."

Momentum was silent for a beat before shrugging and saying, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. There needs to be a balance. Ying and yang. All that trash."

Flash huffed out a laugh next to him, "Now since we're done with all the serious stuff, let's get down to the fun stuff. Got any crushes lately?"

Momentum sprung up from the ground, socking Flash in the shoulder and glaring fiercely, "I hate you."

Flash's expression morphed into one of excited eagerness, "That's a yes if I ever heard one! C'mon, who is it? Who is it?" He started poking Wally in tandem with the questions.

"If you poke me one more time, I'm leaving." Momentum threatened, eyes narrowed.

Flash gave him a sly smirk before slowly reaching over and poking the teenager. Momentum threw his hands in the air, "You're a child! A three-year-old child!" With that, he got up and stormed out, Flash dramatically wailing and following after him. Momentum groaned loudly when Flash inevitably caught up.

Smiling to herself, Artemis figured that Flash could handle the other speedster. They didn't need her watching them anymore. It had been kind of sweet watching them interact. Sure, there had been a lot of serious moments and a lot of uncleared air between them, but it was still sweet. There were moments where Artemis could see Barry taking care of a younger version of Wally.

It was a little sad seeing how bitter Momentum was, too. Artemis figured that if Flash had raised Momentum for longer, there was a good chance that Momentum would be sweet and goofy and only a little bit standoffish, but because he was loyal, not because he was jaded. But Flash hadn't raised Momentum and instead there was a villain standing where a hero could have been. And that was sad. But maybe,  _maybe_  they could fix it.

Momentum didn't have faith that the Team would be able to handle the Light. Well, he was wrong. And they were going to show him that. The Team  _would_  win.


	44. Broken Arrow

DDDDDD

Dick raised his eyebrows at Wally's dramatic retreat. He'd seemed fine as they'd walked to the kitchen. Sure, he'd been a little touchy with Artemis, but he always was. Roy asked incredulously, "What crawled up his butt and died?"

Dick frowned and leaped up to settle on the counter, legs swinging childishly over the edge, "I don't know. He was kind of freaked out last night. And by kind of, I mean really. Maybe we aren't helping like we thought we were. I mean, we thought that this could be partially to get information and partially to help rehabilitate him and show him that we're good, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of progress. He's just as guarded as he was when we started! And he just seems to be more and more freaked out the longer he stays here. I just wish we knew what to do to help him."

There was something scared and pained in Roy's expression when he asked, "What happened to Wally? Why was he freaked out? Did he say anything?"

A gentle hand on Roy's shoulder from the acrobat made him calm down. Dick said, "No, he didn't say anything. He said that he was freaking out over nothing. What's wrong, Roy?"

Roy let out a shuddering sigh, resting his face in his hands and staying there, elbows holding his weight against the countertop, "I lost three hours last night."

Dick felt his breath physically leave him with that news. He set down his smoothie and gripped Roy's bicep, "Roy." He said it firmly, without room for argument and waited until Roy turned to look at him before continuing, "You have to tell someone about this."

Scowling, Roy responded defensively, "I told you." He pulled his arm out of Dick's hands, turning away slightly.

"That's not good enough, Roy! This is becoming a serious problem!" Dick exclaimed. How could Roy not see that he needed help on this?

Roy stood up, ramming his chair back the same way Wally did, but he caught it before it fell, "You sound just like Oliver."

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing. No! No, listen to me, please.  _Please_ , Roy. I know it sucks having to go to someone with a problem. I know it sucks having to admit that you need help. But sometimes,  _you need help_. Someone else needs to know.  _Especially_  if you're losing hours at the Cave. I mean, seriously.  _Three hours_ , Roy? That's bad." Dick pleaded, hands out and entreating his friend to come back and do the sensible thing.

"Wow, really? I hadn't noticed. I thought that losing chunks of my life was a good thing. Never would have guessed it was bad." Roy growled, pacing the kitchen.

Dick's shoulders hunched, "Don't attack me. I'm just trying to help."

Roy sighed and settled back in his seat, scrubbing his hands over his face again and eventually just leaving his face planted in his arms on the counter, "I know, Rob, I know. I'm sorry."

"S'okay." Dick shrugged.

Roy sighed again and continued, "I'm just scared. This isn't normal. I'm afraid of what it could mean. What if it's something that makes me have to stop being a hero? What if it's some sort of disease? I'm  _scared_."

Dick smiled softly at his friend, draping himself over Roy's back, "Or, maybe, it's your latent magical ability manifesting itself."

Roy snorted. After a pause, he snorted again and started laughing completely, clutching his stomach and holding onto the counter with one hand so he didn't imbalance himself or the young acrobat still draped over him. Dick started laughing too, glad that his distraction had worked. If Roy hadn't told anyone by the end of the week, though, Dick would do it for him. Roy would be furious at him for a while, but it would help his friend and that would be worth it.

Moments later Kaldur walked into the room. He asked curiously, in that calm manner that only he could manage, "Are you both alright?"

Dick cackled, "Of course. Want to join us?"

Kaldur raised an eyebrow at him, "I believe that Wally would be sufficiently jealous seeing you draped over one person. There is no need to add another."

Dick flew backwards, jerking upwards and off his friend and staring at Kaldur with wide eyes, spluttering, "I… what? No – it – what?" This only made Roy laugh even harder, clutching his stomach with both hands now, desperately heaving for breath. Dick glared at him, "Jerk! Don't laugh at me!" He started whacking Roy on the shoulder. The archer was laughing so hard that he was letting Dick pound his shoulder. Kaldur was laughing softly from off to the side.

It took a few more minutes, but eventually they all calmed down. Roy stopped laughing. Kaldur settled for only smirking gently from the side. Dick's blush had calmed down and he'd stopped hitting Roy. Dick grumbled, "I hate both of you."

"Nah, you love us." Roy grinned unrepentantly. He turned to Kaldur and asked, "So, little Dickie bird's got a crush on the resident speedster, huh?"

Dick groaned, "I really,  _really_  hate both of you."

Roy replied in a sing-song voice, "I'm not hearing a no~!"

Dick blushed again and Kaldur's eyes widened, "I had been merely joking, but it seems as if there was some truth to what I said."

"Nope. No.  _No_. Not… I don't… Maybe? I don't… I  _hate_  both of you." Dick groaned, dramatically spreading himself across the countertop, laying there and contemplating the woes of living.

"Aw. He's all confused." Roy cooed.

"He does seem rather flustered." Kaldur agreed, "I believe that he does have a crush on the younger speedster, but has not admitted it to himself yet." The two levelled him with unimpressed stared and Dick felt a little bit like melting onto the table top would be the better option at this point. Seriously, though, the rest of the Team was firmly convinced that Kaldur didn't have a sense of humor or a joyful bone in his body, but they just didn't know him well enough for him to feel comfortable being a savage little piece of trash. Kaldur was better at the sarcastic, sly comments than Dick or Roy would ever be. And Kaldur knew how to use those comments to be completely evil, too. It was honestly a travesty.

An amused voice called from the doorway, "You three look like you're having fun." Dinah walked further into the room, going through the motions of making a pot of coffee.

"I'm not having fun! I'm being tortured! They're being mean to me!" Dick whined dramatically.

Dinah laughed softly, but didn't say anything. After a few more moments of quiet where everyone just soaked in the silence, two more people walked into the room.

Wally was flailing his arms around, "You're fundamentally wrong! Your entire argument is based off of nonsense and is therefore invalid!"

Barry reeled back and stared at him mouth open, spluttering for a moment before asking, affronted, " _Invalid_?  _Nonsense_?  _Fundamentally wrong_? Have you even listened to anything I've just said?"

"How do you think I knew you were wrong?" Wally asked smugly.

Shaking his head in amazement, Barry answered, "I think we're talking about two different things because, what I'm talking about, there isn't even room to argue. There's nothing to argue about because I'm right. So, you must be talking about something else."

Wally threw his arms up, "It's like talking to a brick wall!"

"First I'm a three-year-old and now I'm a brick wall? Make up your mind." Barry responded, sharing amused looks with the gathered people as he went to the fridge and grabbed an apple for him and one for Wally. He threw it to the ginger speedster and Wally seemed to catch it on reflex, so caught up in the argument that he didn't even seem to realize that the rest of them were there.

Wally scowled around the chunk of apple he'd just bitten off and said, "You're a three-year-old brick wall, Uncle Barry. Happy now? Does that make you feel better about being so completely wrong?"

Barry shook his head in mock-amazement, "And you're calling  _me_  the brick wall."

Dinah laughed then, causing Wally to whip his head in their direction and stare at them as if they'd just appeared out of thin air. Dinah trailed off into a giggle, "What are you two even arguing about?"

"Apparently not the same thing." Barry muttered under his breath.

Wally sent him a mutinous glare before responding, "Doesn't matter. Just a speedster thing." Dick's shoulders slumped when he heard Wally's voice. He'd lost all of the fire and exhilaration that he'd held when talking to Barry. He had immediately gone on the defensive, throwing up all the walls that had finally fallen. Barry seemed to notice it too, because his shoulders slumped a little too and the jovial smile he was wearing slipped for a brief second.

But, Barry was known for always being positive and being the optimistic presence in the room. He clapped his hands together and said, "I'm all yours for today. What are we doing? Please tell me it's something fun. I'm already bored. We should do something entertaining. What do you guys want to do?" Dick smiled at Barry, already falling into the man's unshakable enthusiasm. Out of the corner of his eye, Dick saw Wally give Barry a fond smile. It made his heart warm a little.

Dinah was frowning at Barry, "We can't just do whatever we want. We've got a training and lessons plan that we follow."

Barry actually pouted, "But that's so boring!"

Dinah raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "That's the real world, Flash. Deal with it." Wally ducked his head to hide a smile, but Dinah caught it and turned her eyebrow on him, "Got something to say?"

The smile was still there, small and tired, but real, when Wally responded, "You guys act just like Cheshire and Icicle Jr. The two of them always argued over training versus relaxing for a little bit."

"I'm not sure if I should be offended that I was just compared to one of the best-known assassins or if I should be offended that, by his comparison, I'm older than you." Dinah said, tilting her head slightly to the side.

Barry blinked at her, "Wait, aren't you older than me?"

Dinah turned to him, glare on full-force, "Are you serious?"

"What? I always just assumed-," Barry started.

That was the wrong thing to say because Dinah interrupted him in a deadly low voice, "You  _assumed_? Are you saying I look old? Is that what you're saying?"

"I never once said that, nor implied that." Barry hastened to clarify. He cleared his throat and said, "You look very young. Oliver is very lucky to have such a lovely, young, fun-loving woman to be with. Ahem."

That was it for Dick and he burst out laughing, curling up on top of the counter. Roy, Kaldur, and Wally followed him soon after. The two adults gave them long-suffering looks that were tinged with a little too much fondness for them to actually be suffering. It was all weirdly domestic and warm and open and felt all too much like home and Dick just wanted the moment to last forever.

Of course, moments like that never lasted and Barry exclaimed softly before putting a hand to his comm and pressing a button. He listened for a moment before sighing softly to himself and saying, "I've gotta go. Trouble in Central City."

There was a bit too much hope in Wally's voice when he asked, "The Rogues?"

"Nah, they're lying low for a while. I don't know what they're up to, but there's never something good that comes from them disappearing from the crime world. That was Grodd. He gets huffy when he feels like he's being ignored. I don't think he likes being un-included from this whole Light mess." Barry sighed, pulling his cowl back up.

Wally's shoulders slumped a little bit before he seemed to shrug to himself, "I think he's just bitter that he didn't plan it all out himself, honestly. But I can totally see him getting huffy about being ignored. It's his fault, though. He's not the best conversationalist."

Flash turned to Wally, "You've met Grodd?"

"Yeah, I ran that mission for him? That was why I was in Gorilla City that one time." Wally responded.

"And he didn't eat you?" Flash asked incredulously.

"Hey! I happen to be very likeable, thank you very much. I even taught him a new word." Wally said proudly.

Flash narrowed his eyes at him, "You did not."

"Did too." Wally nodded imperiously.

"What word? I'm so asking him if he learned that word from you." Flash challenged.

Wally answered easily, "Zounderkite."

"That is not a real word." Flash said.

"Is too!" Wally said back.

"Is not!" Flash retaliated.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

" _Boys_!" Dinah called, impatiently tapping her foot. Flash stopped and put his head down, ashamed, before tearing off towards the zeta beams and disappearing. Wally actually flinched at the loud noise, gripping both arms and completely closing off now that Barry was gone. Sighing, Dinah glanced at Wally, "Maybe your Uncle was right. We should take the day off. Let's start a movie marathon. Aqualad, can you go get the others? Thanks."

Wally was quiet for a moment before he said, "You're just doing this because you want to not be comparable to Cheshire anymore."

Dinah blushed and lightly cuffed Wally on the back of his head, but didn't do anything else beyond shaking her head fondly.

Dick, for his part, just smiled broadly at the scene and made sure to crouch on the arm of the sofa directly next to Wally. Wally rolled his eyes at him, but didn't say anything, only scooching slightly to the side and indicating that if Dick wanted to put a leg there or something that there was room. Dick felt something in his heart melt at that.

And if he somehow ended up plastered to Wally's side, the two of them sharing a single seat on the couch, then that was his business and Kaldur could turn his smug little smile elsewhere.

WWWWWW

Wally sat in his bed silently, practically shaking in anticipation. He was hours away from being free. Sure, there were a few things he needed to figure out, but his powers were going to come back, and he was going to escape. He was almost there. Almost.

Silently, Wally scrubbed a hand through his hair and over to rub against the back of his neck. He really did need to figure out what he was going to do tomorrow. There was little to no chance of him getting out of his room without setting off some sort of alarm now that they had seen him escape and Robin had added an extra layer of protection. So, he wasn't going to take off at midnight. He had to wait for them to open the door for him.

Did he get the inhibitor collar off while he was waiting and then rush them once they opened the door? Or did he do something wait until later? Was there something in the collar that would alert them when it was taken off? On that line of thought, what were the extra things that had been added to the collar? It electrocuted him and shot him with a tranq dart that was made for speedsters, but it also did something else. What else did it do?

Maybe he could tinker around with it in the night and see if he could disable the darts and figured out what was up with other lines of defense. He'd figure out the rest of his plan while he was doing that.

With that in mind, Wally sat down at the small desk that had been in the room, looking around for things that he could use. There was a bathroom attached to the room, but the mirror reflected weirdly. It was super smudgy and hard to see through, but Wally figured that was because they were worried about the Rogues popping up in his bathroom and spiriting him away before anyone could realize that there was something wrong.

But, unfortunately, that was the best bet that Wally had. He quickly unhung the mirror and brought it over to the desk, putting on the desk lamp and settling himself down again. He had a very small amount of supplies to work with and basically none of them were ideal.

He could get thread out of the socks that they'd provided him with. There were pencils and pens for him to use as small things for prying things open and moving wires around. There was a small pin that he'd managed to grab from Zatanna's hair while helping her with chemistry once. He could use that for locks and, if he kept it bent, he could use it for screws. Assuming there were screws.

All of his materials gathered, Wally got to work.

He was zapped more than once and ended up accidently dosing himself with about a half an hour's worth of sleeping gas that left him waking up with the taste of cotton in his mouth and a massive headache. Luckily, he'd managed to stem the flow of the liquid before it was all injected into him, but it still wasn't particularly pleasant.

As the hours were creeping up and it was getting closer and closer to the time that he was generally woken up, Wally started to get irritated. He couldn't find any other sort of trigger. There was nothing that even slightly indicated that there was another layer of protection! He'd stripped the thing to pieces and electrocuted himself so much that he was pretty sure he'd suffered some sort of brain damage from the process, but he couldn't find a single thing. Had Uncle Barry been bluffing? Telling him that so he'd waste his time trying to find the other defensive layer instead of actually working to escape? If so, then he'd almost succeeded.

Shaking his head, Wally decided to deal with the problem if it ever came up. Honestly, at this point, it didn't matter if he didn't escape or not. His powers were coming back, and the zeta beam was set to allow him through. He'd get out sooner or later. He just hoped that it was sooner.

He didn't particularly want to deal with the disappointed looks that he was going to get if he tried to escape and failed again. The glances that the heroes had given him were horrible and had settled in the base of his stomach like a bunch of lead stones, and he did  _not_ want a repeat of that. So, he really, really hoped that his escape plan worked in the morning.

Now he just needed to figure out an escape plan.

He didn't know what the consequences of taking the collar off would be because he didn't know if there was a third element or not. He did know that he was still going to be shocked a little bit because they built these things quite well and it was almost impossible to erase their shocking ability. He did minimize it.

He also knew that his running wasn't going to be all that graceful, either. It'd been a while since he'd run, since he'd had the Speed Force rushing through his veins, and that was enough to ruin the whole plan when the Flash had said that he'd be showing up tomorrow since he didn't get to really hang out that day.

The Flash was almost certainly faster than he was on a good day, so there was no doubt that the Flash could outrun him now. That meant that he needed to do something to stop the Flash from being able to come after him. He needed to take out his Uncle Barry. Wally tilted his head from side to side. He was pretty sure that he had a plan that he could use to take Uncle Barry out, but the older speedster wasn't going to like it. Actually, a lot of them were going to be devastated by what was going to happen.

Shaking his head, Wally sighed. He needed to be focused. Who was the next largest threat? Miss Martian. Her telekinesis probably couldn't catch him if he was moving fast enough, but he wasn't sure, and he didn't want to risk it. He had a fool-proof plan to get her out of the way without hurting her, though, so he wasn't particularly worried.

Superboy was the next biggest threat. He didn't respond all that quickly, though, so Wally might get away with not having to worry about him at all. To be safe, though, he'd probably get him out of the way the same way he'd deal with Miss Martian. That should work.

Honestly, after that, the only other ones that really served as a threat were the archers. He needed to make sure that they weren't on the defensive. If he started his escape when he was in the main room with the zeta beams  _right there_ , then there was no way that they'd be able to grab their bows and shoot him before he escaped. Sure, he wouldn't be able to get up a lot of speed in that small of a space, but he didn't need a lot of speed for that.

Okay, okay. What was he missing? Were there any holes in his plan? Hm… he needed to figure out a way to make  _absolute certain_ that the archers weren't defensive when he moved to escape. With Roy and Artemis, it was practically impossible to guess why one or the other would end up snapping at him and getting their bows ready and looking like he was about to run would be a very good reason for them to get their bows out. So, he just needed to figure out how to fix that.

Well, there was  _that_  way, but… No. No, that was perfect. That was how he was going to do it. It wasn't going to be fun for anybody and Wally was almost definitely going to be killed by someone whether he escaped or not, but it would work. It would get him out of there.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Wally cracked his knuckles and got back to work. He needed to do some additional maneuvering to get Flash out of the way. The rest of them required no further planning, though, so he was good.

Somehow, he must have fallen asleep after finishing the final part of his plan. A groggy glance at the clock told him that he'd only been asleep for about a half an hour, though. Squinting slightly to himself, Wally wondered what had woken him up.

Then there was knocking at the door and his uncle's voice calling, "Hey Wally, you awake in there? Will it be awkward if I walk in now?"

Wally rolled his eyes, made sure that Uncle Barry wouldn't be able to guess what he had been doing, and then called back, "Yes, I'm awake, and no, it won't be awkward."

This was actually perfect. It made the initial part of his plan much easier if Uncle Barry was the one who originally came to wake him up. He heard the Uncle Barry going through the motions of unlocking the door, and he stood in the middle of his room, waiting.

Uncle Barry finally stepped through the door and beamed at Wally, "Ready to go, kiddo. We've got a big breakfast ready for us." Wally purposely arranged his expression to one of slight sadness and he shuffled his feet and looked down at the ground. The Flash zipped closer, expression concerned, "Wally? You okay?"

When he was close enough, Wally reached out to him and pulled him into a hug. The older speedster froze for a second, definitely not expecting that sort of sentiment to come from Wally, but he eventually got into the hug, wrapping his arms around Wally and not even noticing when Wally raised his arm and stabbed the sleeping dart into his Uncle's neck.

Before Uncle Barry could get his arm up to remove the needle, Wally had pushed the release and stepped back. The betrayed look that the Flash had given him before falling into blissful slumber was something that would haunt Wally for a long time.

Shaking his head, Wally carefully worked Flash's comms out of his cowl and smashed them. That way, there was no chance that someone would try to contact him and then track him down when he didn't respond. He then lugged and shifted Flash into the closet that had been prepared for him, shutting the door and making sure that it actually closed.

Part one was almost complete. Now he just needed to convince the others that the Flash had actually left and was not, in fact, unconscious in Wally's closet. Because that would not go over well.

He waited about five minutes which is when he heard someone else coming towards him. He hoped and prayed that it wasn't Superboy. The whole gig would be over if the Kryptonian's sensitive ears got close enough to hear that there were two superfast heartbeats in the room.

Luck was on his side because it was Black Canary who was coming to get him and not the half-Kryptonian. Wally allowed himself a short moment of relief before hovering in the doorway and calling out, "Hey, aren't you proud of me? Flash ran off talking about Grodd again and I didn't even leave my room even though the door was open!"

Black Canary looked startled, glancing behind her as if that would help any, "I didn't even hear Flash leaving. I didn't even hear the zeta beam go off."

"Fine." Wally drawled, trying to draw her attention away from that fact, "Don't be proud of me. It's not like I was actually trying to be considerate for once in my life. Don't mind me."

Black Canary smiled indulgently and said, "Yes, yes, dear. We're very proud of you." She promptly burst into giggles and Wally mock-glared at her.

Feeling like he was selling the suddenly-good-kid act a little too well, Wally changed tactics, asking exasperatedly, "So, can I actually leave my room now? Do you count as suitable body guard to make sure that I get to the kitchen without horribly trashing your HQ?"

"And you were doing so well." Black Canary shook her head in disappointment, but the twinkle in her eye said that it was mostly fake.

She led him down the hallway, accepting his answer about Uncle Barry and not commenting on the fact that he had been acting so strange that day. They kept walking until they got to the kitchen and Wally hovered in the doorway for a moment, taking in that image of the Team. There was a good chance that they'd give him those same looks of betrayal that Uncle Barry gave him when they realized what he was doing, but he wanted to take the time and give himself a mental image that wouldn't drown him in guilt every time he thought about the Team.

Miss Martian was sitting on one of the barstools, leaning back against Superboy. The two were watching each other, smiling while Superboy talking animatedly about something. There was a cinnamon roll in Miss Martian's hand and the remains of an orange resting on the table next to Superboy's hand. Artemis, Zatanna, and Robin were filling up the rest of the counter, Robin perched on it, leaning up against the wall while Artemis and Zatanna were on opposite sides, staring each other down and working through a thumb wrestling match which Robin was avidly commentating.

Roy and Aqualad were rolling their eyes at the thumb wrestling, drinks held loosely in their hands. Roy was sprawled back against the island, idly making comments to Aqualad. The Atlantean was standing ramrod straight as always, but there was a little fond smile on his face as he responded to Red Arrow's comments. Black Canary flowed through the room with her usual grace, dancing around the obstacles and making sure that she stopped by each group and asked how they were. It was all a perfect last image to remember.

Wally shook his head slightly. His little sentimental moment was over. He needed to get back on track. There was a plan to carry out and he intended to actually succeed this time.

Wally walked forward, grabbing a plate and putting a couple of things on it, not really paying attention to what he was doing. He moved to go stand by Roy before deciding that it would be better if he started his plan to get Superboy and Miss Martian out of the picture first.

He sat down across from them, smiling at the two and starting in on his food. As he knew it would, Miss Martian interrupted his meal by asking carefully, "How is it? Do you like it?"

Smiling around the cinnamon roll that was still kind of in his mouth, he nodded and swallowed before answering, "It's great! You're a pretty good cook. Do you do all the cooking here?"

Miss Martian smiled, a pretty little thing that had nothing on Robin's cute grin, "Not all of it. The others help out sometimes, and Robin's a pretty good cook when it comes to breakfast stuff. He actually helped me this morning! And Co- Superboy here helps me cook a lot of the time."

"That's cool. It's nice that you've got your own kitchen here." He commented idly, starting in on the waffle he'd grabbed.

Miss Martian asked politely, "Do you like to cook?"

"I don't particularly like it. I mean, I sometimes enjoy it as a relaxing thing, but that's pretty much it. With the Rogues, it's pretty much just me and Heatwave who can cook. Pied Piper can do brownies and Captain Boomerang can do barbecue, but that's about it right there, so I ended up helping Heatwave cook more than I intended to." Wally answered, truthfully, trying to get Miss Martian to ask the question he needed her to ask.

And, as if those were the magic thoughts, she did, "Ooh, what was your favorite thing to cook?"

Smiling to himself, Wally answered easily, "I'm not sure what the name of it is, but it's definitely my favorite breakfast food that we ever made." He started outlining the principle of baking it, going into as much detail as he could without confusing her.

Her expression lit up as he talked, and she was positively beaming when he finished. She said, "I have to try making that recipe! I'll ask Black Canary if she'll let Superboy and I skip training to make that! I'm sure she'll say yes, and we can have it for lunch. You'll have to let me know if it's anything like the one you made, okay?" Wally smiled and nodded and agreed even though he had no intention of still being here by lunch.

Miss Martian went and made her request and Superboy and Wally sat in comfortable silence. Superboy always did seem to find the silence more soothing, typically falling into silence and not seeming bothered enough by it to attempt conversation. Wally, however, had always hated silence. He'd talk just so that there was something filling the air and the silence wasn't screaming out at him. He couldn't talk now, though. He just couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Finally, though, Black Canary cut through the silence and said, "Alright everyone, since we had such a big breakfast, we're going to start with a little lesson on hacking, so your stomachs get a little rest."

Robin cackled that terrifying cackle and legitimately flipped off the table, "I love hacking."

"You, Robin, will be trying to get into the Bat Cave's system from here because we all know that you know how to hack. Trust me when I say you are far and beyond anything I could ever teach you." Black Canary said as she rolled her eyes. The others good-naturedly ribbed Robin about it, but Wally could tell that he was preening.

Miss Martian and Superboy stayed in the kitchen to try to cook the thing that Wally had described. That was them out of the way. There was no chance that they would get to the entrance room soon enough after realizing that there was something wrong. All he had left was to make sure that everyone was distracted and not prepared for it when he decided to really run.

This was the part that he was looking forward to the least. This was the part of his plan that he was most nervous about because, if the escape plan didn't end up actually working, then this was going to be really, really bad. Hopefully, though, the plan would work. Hopefully.

Black Canary led them to the main room and gestured to the different stations that the Team could help themselves to. She chose that room because of the giant monitor in it that made it really easy for everyone to tell what was going on. It just made Wally's job easier.

After a moment, the Team realized that Wally had fallen slightly behind. They probably didn't notice that it left him closer to the zeta beams than they were.

Robin narrowed the whites of his mask at him, "Wally? What's wrong?"

"You're okay with hacking, right? If you got out of your room the other night that you definitely know the basics of it." Black Canary asked in concern, taking one step forward.

Acting nervous, Wally shifted on his feet again, glancing at the group carefully watching him before biting his lip and looking at the ground. After a few more seconds had passed, he looked back up and looked Aqualad directly in the eye, "I want to tell you who the mole is."

Everyone in the room froze, expressions morphing into shock. Black Canary's voice sounded slightly strangled when she said, "You… I mean, we would like to know this information, but you don't… don't have… Who is the mole?"

This was it. This was the moment. Wally raised his hand and put it behind his head, scratching at his neck, something that was a nervous habit and something that he'd definitely done before in front of them. They just didn't know that he was getting ready to rip the inhibitor collar off.

"Wally?" Robin prompted, voice small and expression pained like he could have kept going pretending to himself that there wasn't actually a mole, but now he had to face that fact.

Licking his lips, Wally got into a stance where he could pivot easily and start running. He looked at the group, heart beating a mile a minute, and looked directly at Roy when he said, "Broken Arrow."

The effect was instantaneous. Roy's whole body went rigid and his expression slackened, his eyes dulling. The pandemonium that ensued when Roy reacted that way was exactly what Wally was planning on.

Everyone's expression dropped into shock, mouths falling open and eyes widening. People started turning towards their friend, trying to get him to react.

In the background, Wally ripped the inhibitor collar off, feeling only the sharp sting of electricity and no other adverse effect. He pivoted and started a headlong run (such a beautiful, beautiful run at a speed that actually made sense and finally itched that itch that had been slowly killing him for days) towards the zeta beams. In the barrel of the machine, he watched as light powered up around him and the Team realized that it was actually working. He watched as Artemis raised her bow and Aqualad started running towards him. Black Canary opened her mouth to give off the canary cry, but realized that there were too many people who would be hurt by that. Zatanna reached her hand out and her mouth started shaping the words of a spell. Roy was still frozen, expression slack. Robin, though, called out to him, face panicked, " _Wally!_ "

And then he was gone, transported into the world – free at last.


	45. Blind Sided

DDDDDD

What just happened?

Dick didn't think he had ever been this completely blind-sided by something in his life and that was saying something, considering the kind of life that he lived.

Vaguely, he registered Connor and M'gann rushing into the room at the sound of his yell and he heard Kaldur shouting for everyone to calm down from what felt like miles away. Artemis was cursing and slamming her fist into her thigh and Black Canary was so shell-shocked that she wasn't even reprimanding her. Zatanna had her hand over her mouth, breathing harsh and off-beat.

In a rush, senses came back to him. Sounds were clearer. He saw everything in the room. Dick finally started to get control of himself. By that time, Kaldur had calmed everyone down and they were trying to get Roy to start acting like himself again. He was just standing there, though, completely blank-faced and unresponsive.

Voice rough and small, Dick shouldered through the group until he was right in front of Roy and repeated, "Broken Arrow."

With a real shudder, Roy came back to himself, jerking back in shock when he realized that he was completely surrounded by heroes who were staring at him with complete concern. Roy shook his head and grabbed it. He whispered, "It happened again." Black Canary's eyebrows drew together as she finally processed what that meant in conjunction with Wally announcing that he was going to reveal the mole. Roy shook his head again, expression pained, "Where's Wally?" At the silence that met his question, his shoulders slumped, and he said, "We lost Wally. He escaped. How did he escape? What were all those precautions in the inhibitor collar?" Suddenly angry, Roy turned and punched the wall. He leaned his forehead against it afterwards, breathing harshly.

Fists clenched and shoulders tense, Dick swallowed back the frustrated tears that wanted to spring to life and said, "Roy. You're the mole."

The expression on Roy's face was so dark and angry and  _afraid_  that Dick wanted to crawl away somewhere and die. Roy growled, " _What_?"

Dick swallowed again, and all but whispered, "All those hours you were missing? Where you'd just suddenly end up somewhere else and realize that time had passed? That was the Light activating some sort of conditioning in you where you gave them information. Wally told us that he was going to tell us the mole and then he said a certain phrase. You went… you went silent and blank and unresponsive until I said the phrase again."

Roy was silent, mouth slightly open and emotions playing over his face. Dinah frowned and asked tightly, "What hours that you were missing? Are you telling me you've been missing time for a while now and I haven't heard of it?"

Roy still didn't say anything, so Dick felt like it was up to him to answer, "There's no way that he would have suspected that he was losing hours as the mole. The thought never crossed my mind when he told me."

Sighing harshly and running a hand through her hair, Dinah spoke, "Okay, this is how this is going to go. I am going to call Batman and get him bring in the rest of the mentors and the original seven. We are going to wait in the meeting room for them and then we are going to discuss this. With Wally's powers back, there's no way for us to catch him even if we found out where the zeta beam transported him. Okay?"

Everyone mumbled their agreements and the group moved towards the meeting room, Dinah already contacting Batman as they walked. Honestly, Dick was pretty sure that most of them were in shock. No one saw this coming. Roy as the mole? That was never even a consideration. Everyone had been completely convinced that the mole was someone  _on the Team_. Sure, there had been that scare with Flash, but that was different. It had been disproven. All theories that it could be someone  _related_  to the Team had gone out the window when he'd been cleared. Roy had never been a suspect in anyone's minds.

At the same time though, that made sense. That made  _so much sense_. It was the smartest thing for the Light to do. Of course, the Team was going to assume that it was someone among themselves and not an outsider. Of course, a person who wasn't immediately under the intense scrutiny of the Justice League but still close enough to the League and their special ops team to get the information was the perfect choice.

Robin scrubbed a hand over his face. He could berate himself for not seeing this later. He'd figure out what signs he'd missed, and he'd find out ways to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again. He would never let the Team down again by missing something this  _obvious_.

And then there was Wally. Roy wasn't the only bombshell that had been dropped on them today. Wally had just escaped. He purposely caused confusion by telling them the mole in order to escape. How had he gotten through the precautions? There was horrible electrocution and sleeping gas waiting for him when the collar was ripped off, so how did he still escape? It didn't make any sense whatsoever. It was obvious that he'd labeled Miss Martian and Superboy as his greatest threats and had enacted a scheme to keep them away in the kitchen when he made his escape. Wally had definitely planned that out.

That was probably what hurt the most about this whole thing. Wally had  _purposely_ planned this whole thing out to the last detail. He had analyzed his threats and neutralized them as efficiently as he could. He saw  _them_  as threats. That was completely the opposite of what this was supposed to do. They were supposed to be gaining his trust! They were supposed to be getting through to him and making him feel safe and happy with heroes. Sure, Dick had lamented about how it hadn't seemed to be working just the other day, but still! Surely something they did must have struck a chord? What had they done wrong that nothing had changed? He'd seemed calmer around them and he hadn't fought with Artemis as much after catching her that day. The way he called Kaldur 'Fishboy' had seemed to go from mocking to fond.

It just didn't make sense that nothing had changed that entire time. It didn't make sense that he could escape like that and not seem to care at all.

And now Wally was the enemy.  _Momentum_  was the enemy. He had escaped and, presumably, gone back to the Light. He was an enemy agent and would need to be taken down in future battles. Robin would be reading criminal folders on him in the future and wondering what would have happened if he hadn't escaped this day? If he'd somehow failed?

Because Wally could have been a great hero. He could have been mentored by the Flash and learned to use his sarcasm as weapons on the battlefield and he could have been a member of the Team. They'd get him a slightly different suit and a different name, so people didn't make associations and refuse to give him a chance. They'd work out something with the Rogues, so Wally could still see his family even when he was a hero. Dick and Wally would be great friends (and maybe something more) and it would be perfect.

Dick shook his head. This was real life. This wasn't some 'everything works out' kind of deal. Real life sucked and was hard and nothing ever went the way you wanted it to. Real life was full of betrayals and intrigue and pain and misery and no one had any choice but to live in it. So, Dick squared his shoulders and sat down in the silent meeting room to wait for the mentors to arrive. Real life wasn't going to wait for him to get his head in the game, so he better do it sooner rather than later. He'd properly process that later. Right now, everyone needed to be focused on what was going on in the present, not the signs they missed in the past and certainly not the future that would never happen.

It didn't take long for the Justice League members to arrive. They all looked vaguely confused and Dick figured that no one had really told them what was going on. Batman at least knew some of it by the vaguely sympathetic look Dick received upon his mentor entering the room.

In the end, the only one missing was the Flash. Batman tapped his foot impatiently while the others glanced around them. Hal shrugged easily, "He's late all the time. What's the difference now?"

"He's not answering his communicator." Batman growled.

Hal sat a little straighter in his seat, "That's not good."

Batman didn't dignify that with an answer, instead stalking over to the computer in the room and quickly running through some encryptions. He then pulled up a feed from Barry's comms device. The last known location was Wally's room. Dinah's eyes widened, "Wally told me that Flash had to leave for an emergency with Grodd in Central. That was why I got him out of his room today instead of Flash."

The heroes all looked at each other. Plastic Man was the first one gone, limbs slightly wobbly and loose as he ran. Batman stalked out next. Superman was the last hero to go, calling out behind him, "Wait here!"

And then they were gone. Artemis shook her head, "What do you think Momentum did to Flash?"

M'gann frowned slightly, "We don't know that he actually did anything."

Artemis snorted, "C'mon. He planned this out perfectly. He knew that he needed to get Flash out of the way. He obviously did something to make it work."

"Wait." Diana said, eyebrows drawn together, "What's going on? Where is Momentum?"

Dinah raised a hand to stall any further comments, "We'll explain that all in a second. Let's wait for everyone to get back so we only have to say it once." Diana nodded, mollified by her response.

It didn't take long for the others to come back, supporting Flash between them. The speedster had one arm around Plastic Man's back and another around Clark's. Batman stalked behind them, expression faintly murderous.

Hal leapt up out of his seat, helping Plastic Man ease the scarlet speedster into the seat between them. Barry groaned and held his head as he was lowered. Hal exclaimed, "What happened? Are you okay?"

Barry rubbed his temples, gritting his teeth and answering, "I'm fine. You know how we fixed up the inhibitor collar to include the sleeping darts? Well, apparently Wally took them out. I don't know how because he had to have electrocuted himself several times to do it and I know that I couldn't get that inhibitor collar open with the few supplies he had, but he did it. When I came into the room to bring him to breakfast, he seemed upset, so I came closer. When I got close enough, he… pulled me into a hug. I thought we were finally getting through to him, so I hugged him back. Didn't notice he had the dart in his hand until it was jabbed into my neck. Bats had an antidote, though, so he just woke me up. Head seriously hurts, though."

Hal winced sympathetically and patted his friend on the back.

King Arthur spoke next, "May we now know what has happened that we were all called here?"

Dinah took over the narrative, saving the kids from having to do it, "About five minutes after Barry was supposed to be back with Wally, I went to go see what was taking them. Wally told me that Barry had run off to Central to deal with Grodd and that Wally had stayed in his room until someone came and got him. I brought him over to breakfast where we ate for a while. Eventually, M'gann asked if she and Connor could try making this thing that Wally had told them about instead of doing the first lesson. I told them they could. Then the rest of us went out to the main room to practice hacking skills. Wally trailed a little bit behind us and when we asked what was wrong, he said that he wanted to tell us who the mole was." The room tensed, expressions closing off and mouths pursing. Dinah continued, "Then all he said was…" She paused and glanced slightly at Roy, who clenched his fists but put his hands over his ears anyway. She continued again, "Broken Arrow. Roy shut down. He went completely blank. We were all freaking out about that. We hadn't realized that Wally had taken the inhibitor collar off and was running for the zeta beam. Then the zeta beam started working and it took him away. We're not sure how that happened."

Batman, who had heard most of this already, had been fiddling with the same computer from earlier. Turning the screen to face the group, he said, "This is how it happened." Dick winced when he realized what was going on. It didn't take the rest of the group much longer to figure it out. Roy was there on the screen, messing with the zeta beams. His phone was pressed between his ear and his shoulder and he was clearly changing Wally's settings in the system.

Oliver finally spoke up, expression blanker than Dick had even known it could be, "Are you seriously trying to tell me that my so- that Roy is the mole? He would  _never_  betray this Team.  _Never_." His voice was more serious than Dick had ever heard. It was moments like these that Dick remembered why Batman had contingency plans for if heroes went rogue. Oliver might seem like a silly, immature, fun-loving hero, but he was dangerous. Incredibly dangerous.

Kaldur spoke next, expression dark, "It was never said that Roy betrayed the Team. It was said that he was the mole. Based on the fact that there is a code phrase in place that makes him lose his memories of the times after the phrase is said indicates that he is not performing the acts of a mole willingly." He seemed as angry as Oliver about the whole thing. That wasn't surprising, though. Kaldur, Dick, and Roy were some of the first sidekicks and had been great friends ever since. The three of them were inseparable as often as they could be. It was hard to think that one of them had betrayed the other two, even if it was unwillingly.

Oliver's jaw clenched, and he turned to Roy, "What is this about losing memories?"

Roy shrugged, aiming at nonchalant, "For a little while I've been missing bits of my memories. That night that I apparently messed with the zeta beams, I lost three hours."

"For a little while?!" Oliver practically screeched, causing Barry to wince in the background. Oliver noticed and continued in a more controlled voice, "For a little while? How long has this been going on?  _Why_  didn't you tell me?"

"Maybe because I realized that you'd just freak out without actually providing a solution?" Roy suggested dryly, eyes tight with anger.

Oliver bared his teeth, "News flash, kid: this is something to freak out about! Do you realize how much we could have prevented had you told someone about this? Do you know how many people have gotten hurt, how many plans the Light has been able to enact because you didn't tell someone that you were losing time?"

Roy's fists clenched again, and his jaw cracked slightly as it moved, "Right, of course.  _That's_  what you're worried about.  _Other_ people were getting hurt, so you're concerned. That makes sense."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Oliver growled in reply. He threw his hands in the air, "God! Grow  _up_ , Roy! Don't just attack me about the littlest thing because you can't admit that you messed up! Look, it's done with now. We can't change anything, so let's just focus on what to do next."

Roy shook his head at Oliver, eyes hardening, "Are you serious?  _You're_  the one who blew up about it! I was fine just trying to focus on what to do next, but then you went and flipped out and started yelling at me like usual! Also, you know what? I don't think I did mess up. Maybe if you had made me feel like I  _could_  come to you with these kinds of things, I would have, and we wouldn't be having this problem!"

Oliver opened his mouth to answer, but Clark beat him to it, announcing firmly, " _Enough_."

The room fell silent, members shifting in their seats through the cloying tension that radiated through the room. Barry was the first one to speak again, "We need to find Wally."

"I've already found him." Batman responded.

The room started. The teens were looking at Batman with complete confusion. First of all, how had he already found Wally? Second of all, why weren't they going after him before he moved? Batman glared at them, and said, "When the inhibitor collar was removed, it released a GPS tracker is absorbed into the skin and into the blood stream. Unless he experiences excessive bleeding, we should be able to continue to track him."

"That was the other failsafe." Artemis said, already nodding her head to answer the question.

Barry frowned, "Then what are we waiting for?"

"We're waiting for him to stop running and settle down for longer than two minutes at a time." Batman growled. He was keeping one eye on the screen of his computer and another on the gathering of heroes.

J'onn's eyes widened, "The place where he stops at will be the Light's headquarters."

"Most likely, yes." Batman responded before frowning, "Unless he managed to figure out that there was a GPS tracker in the collar."

Dick shook his head, "He would have removed it or figured out something to prevent it from sticking onto him in the first place. I don't think he noticed."

Clark was frowning, "What happened to getting him to trust us? He ran at the first chance of escape and from what Batman's said, this wasn't his first attempt, although he didn't get far in the first try. What did we do wrong when trying to get him to trust us?"

Batman's voice was emotionless and cold when he answered simply, "He's a villain." Dick felt a little bit of his heart die at the easy statement. Wally was a villain. He was a villain and there was no chance for them and Bruce didn't approve. It finally hit Dick that Wally was really gone. He had really left and gone back for the Light.

Plastic Man, who had been remarkably quiet for the time they were there, suddenly lifted his head, exclaiming, "What if he's not going back to the Light?" Dick raised his own head. That was oddly in line with what he'd been thinking.

"Where else would he go?" Hal asked wearily.

Roy sat up in his seat, "The Rogues! Is there a chance he'd go back to the Rogues?"

Flash shook his head morosely, "No. He told me the other day that he definitely wanted to go back to the Light. He was determined to do it. Couldn't give me a legitimate reason why, but he definitely is aiming to go back to the Light."

"So, if he's definitely going back to the Light, then what do we do when we find out where the Light's hideout is?" Clark asked.

"I'd say we could send Roy in there as, like, a double agent, but we don't know if Roy ever went to their HQ, so we don't know how strange or not strange it would be to see him in there." Zatanna said sadly.

Connor grunted, "We could ask the Rogues if Roy was ever there."

"Either they never saw him there, or he was never there because they were the ones who originally accused me of being the mole." The Flash said, not even the slightest hint of bitterness in his voice even as Dick's cheeks warmed at the reminder.

"So, what do you suggest? That we just storm the place? That doesn't sound like a good idea either. We don't know what the inside is like at all." Diana threw back.

Plastic Man raised a hand and said, "I do! Flash and I worked out a map from my memories of the place. I was never allowed to see how to get to the place, but I was pretty much given free-reign on the inside. I mean, obviously I wasn't allowed in the labs, but I got around the rest."

"Surely, they know that Plastic Man worked for the League by now, though, right?" Artemis asked. She looked around and continued, "I mean, you'd think that they'd have moved the building when they knew they had that big of an info leak."

Plastic Man scrunched his nose, "Well… I didn't actually know where it was, only what was inside. And yeah, that's a lot of information  _if_  we find the actual building. If we don't, then that info is completely useless. Besides, it's a pretty big place and they're trying to go completely radio silent until the big day. They'd make some pretty big splashes if they started trying to move to a different location. I think the benefits outweigh the risks there. At least, that's how I would have done it with the location of my ring."

Artemis gave him a strange look like she was trying to figure out if he was being serious or not, but ended up not saying anything. Clark nodded, "Then we have a floor plan for when we find the building. We can make a plan then." Everyone nodded their agreement.

"I really,  _really_  hate to ask this, but how do we prevent Roy from leaking more information?" Hal asked, expression desperately guilty even as he said the words. It was obvious that it hurt him to say that about the man he considered to be like a nephew to him.

Roy was the one who answered, "Just make sure that I'm not anywhere that a villain can tell me the code phrase."

"If I may interject?" J'onn asked formally. The gathered group nodded to him and he continued, "I can go through your mind and erase the conditioning there that resulted in your response to the code phrase."

"Wait." Dick said, eyes narrowed beneath his mask, "I think we're missing something important here. When was Roy conditioned?" Everyone stopped and stared up at him. He shook his head, and said, "That would have taken days to do. When was he missing for days?"

"Not anytime recently. Not anytime in a long time, actually…" Dinah answered for Roy.

Roy's eyebrows drew together, "Does this mean that I've been programmed for a long time now? How long has the Light actually been a thing?"

Batman said, "Think back. When was the last time you were missing for days? We need to know this?"

Shaking his head and expression twisting in frustration, Roy growled, "I don't know!"

Oliver quietly said, "About three years back, when Roy was fifteen, he went on a solo mission. It was supposed to be something simple where he was just supposed to look into a LexCorp shell company that was supposedly working weapons deals with North Rhelasia. He disappeared for a couple of days. I found him in a warehouse later in the week." Roy gave his guardian a startled look, clearly not expecting him to remember that much. Dick thought that maybe that should be a sign to Roy that Oliver really did care about him.

Clark frowned, "LexCorp. Luthor did this, then. That means that the Light has been a problem for at least three years now. Why did they finally make their move now? What changed between then and now? What part of their plan did they finally get in order for them to move to the finale?"

"Roy!" Artemis said.

"What?" The ruby archer asked back irritably.

Artemis scowled at him, "I wasn't talking to you. I meant that as an answer to Superman's questions.  _You_  are what changed. You're a part of the Justice League now."

Dick nodded in understanding, "They needed their mole to get into the JL to do the most damage, but what kind of damage are they intending?"

"What do we know that they've done? Since they've become active, what have they done?" Barry asked excitedly, obviously running a thousand scenarios through his mind for every one that someone else thought through.

Arthur answered first, "They took the echinoderm from my kingdom."

Dick spoke next, "They were doing a bunch of stuff with Kobra venom – the stuff on Santa Prisca, the animals in northern India, the Kobra-venom enhanced plants the Injustice League were using."

Roy answered after that, frowning, "The Fog that Dr. Roquette made. They stole info from Wayne Tech and STAR Labs."

Kaldur added, "Luthor tried to unite North and South Rhelasia with LexCorp as a major investor."

Batman nodded and frowned, "None of those seem connected, but they have to be. Those have been the major movements of the Light and they must all be moving towards the same goal."

Plastic Man frowned, "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"You had to leave when you did. Things would have been seriously bad for you - and your girlfriend - if you hadn't." Barry said, putting a comforting hand on Plastic Man's arm. The former villain smiled at him gratefully.

"Besides," Hal teased gently, "You weren't even close to Wally's clearance and he's how many years younger than you? You couldn't have done anything else if you tried. Too old to be good enough to get info in that kind of place."

"Too old?" Plastic Man asked, expression opening a little more, "If I'm too old, then you wouldn't have even been let into that kind of place. You'd have been too old to even bother. Also, like, that interview would have killed you. It almost killed me. That was a vicious interview and Sportsmaster does not appreciate dawdling." Plastic Man's expression turned vaguely scared even after just talking about the interview.

Clark brought attention back to himself, "Alright, what have we gotten so far?"

Diana summed up the meeting, "Roy was programmed roughly three years ago. The Light was formed at that time or earlier. There is something they have to do that needed Roy to be in the Justice League. Wally is going back to the Light and we can trace him through the GPS tracker in his blood stream. Plastic Man knows the layout of the Light's headquarters."

"Good." Clark said before continuing, "Then let's start getting a plan together."

"All of us?" Connor asked suspiciously.

Clark seemed to jump slightly, obviously having forgotten the generally quiet clone. Swallowing slightly, Clark's eyes jumped to Connor's clenched fist and the gentle, comforting hand that M'gann had on the half-Kryptonian's arm. He stared at that for a long moment before affirming quietly, "Yeah. All of us."


	46. Miss You

WWWWWW

Wally sighed and ran a weary hand over his face. Clenching his fists, he bit into the tub of high protein ice cream he'd grabbed from the store he'd gotten new clothes from. Every fifteen minutes or so, Wally had to stop running and grab a new set of clothes. He was running really fast and normal polyester and denim clothes did not approve. It wasn't like he could find some fire and friction resistant clothing just lying around for him to grab. It wasn't his fault that he had to keep switching clothes.

The non-stop running was taking it out of him energy-wise too. He was exhausted, but he knew he needed to get going back to the Light. Preferably, he'd like to find his team first. They were almost certainly sent to get him back, but he had zero clues where they'd be. There was a chance that he'd find a way to get into contact with them or vice versa, but as it stood now, he had little chance of finding them. Truthfully, he wanted to talk things out with Cameron. The ice-themed villain was one of his closest friends and Wally didn't want Cameron to be caught in the backlash of whatever happened with the Light.

And who knew what was going to happen with the Light? Wally had already determined that he was going to take a stand and fight back, but that didn't necessarily mean that anything was going to happen. He needed to confront them and try to dismantle them from the inside, but he wasn't sure how much a single street kid could do. There was only so far he could push them before he outlived his usefulness. There was a chance that he'd already outlived his usefulness.

No, he couldn't think that way. The Light had contacted him and helped him escape. They would have left him to rot if they thought that he was no longer useful. Well, unless they didn't trust him to not give away their position. Then they'd get him to escape and go back to them, so they could kill him. And, honestly, they were probably right for not trusting him to keep their secrets secret. He'd told the little leaguers about Roy.

Mind, he hadn't told them everything. They were all going to be devastated when they found out he was a clone. Maybe as one of the things he did while dismantling the Light from the inside would be to find the original Roy Harper. It was going to be weird seeing another one of his friend, but… it would be worth it if it meant that his Roy would rest easier. Because Wally could already tell that Roy would blame himself for the original going missing and being kidnapped. Wally could tell that Roy would run off looking for the original. After everything that Wally had done and would probably continue to do, finding the original Roy Harper was probably the least he could do to repent.

He had so much to repent for. Wally was starting to accept that the Rogues never betrayed him and that they never, ever would. He was ready to go home to them, but he wasn't sure how their relationship would be. This was different from when he ran away the first time. The first time he'd been found that night and he'd gone home with little difficulty. Sure, he'd become a criminal informant, but they hadn't known that until later.

That was another thing, Wally and the rest of the Rogues had never gotten the chance to talk things out and figure out what they were going to do about everything. Then again, it probably wouldn't matter. Wally certainly had no intention of going back to being a criminal informant for Roy. He didn't think he could face his friend again after revealing that he was the mole and, eventually, for revealing that he'd known that Roy was a clone.

The whole thing was just a mess and Wally wasn't too proud to admit that he had a lot to apologize for to a lot of different people. Sure, he was manipulated and coerced into a lot of his decisions and the Light had been expertly planning everything from day one, but that wasn't an excuse. He should have known better. He should have done better. He still could do better.

Scrubbing a hand over his face again, Wally cautiously pulled out a burner phone he'd grabbed while he was running around. His fingers hovered over the button that would start a new text conversation. Did he really want to do this?

The memory of the betrayed expressions he'd seen as he left the place where the Team based themselves was what incited him into pressing the button.

Quickly entering a number he'd memorized the moment he received the paper, Wally started typing out his message.

_Wally (10:15pm):_

_Hey Robin, this is Wally. I felt like I owed you and the Team some sort of note I guess? Nothing so mushy as that, but… I don't know. I'm just texting whatever comes to me. You know, it wasn't half bad staying there with you guys. You weren't complete jerks even if Artemis got close. But I get where she's coming from, you know? I don't think I'd like some hero coming into my base. It'd make me cranky. Well, I was cranky either way, so… Yeah. You guys didn't do that bad with the whole getting me to trust you thing. I mean, obviously, it didn't entirely work, but… When you realize that even captured by the enemy, the Light still got to me… They're not going to give up. And they want me alive, so that's a plus. I might have gotten close to trusting you guys, but from what I've seen of you, I don't trust you to take out the Light. That was where the problem was. I didn't trust you to take out the Light. And I'm selfish by nature. I'll stick with whoever is least likely to lose. I'm selfish and I don't understand the thought of loyalty and I change my tune with the wind… For what it's worth, I'm sorry. For what it's worth… if it had been anyone but me stuck with you in your base, you probably would have gotten them to trust you… Anyways, this is a burner phone that I'm dumping asap, so don't try to contact this number again. Actually, don't try to contact again. You've got my actual burner phone that I had been contacting you with, so… This is goodbye I guess… Robin… I'm going to miss you… Goodbye…_


	47. A Start

WWWWWW

Wally raced towards the address he'd been given. Somehow, Cheshire had gotten into contact with him. All Wally knew was that he'd fallen asleep for one of his mini speedster cat naps and he'd woken up with Cheshire leaning over him. He would never, ever admit to the screech he'd admitted upon seeing that creepy mask looming over him as he came out of a nightmare. It was not pleasant.

But then she'd told him an address on the other side of the state he was in and told him to run the two of them over there. She said that she'd explain how she found him later and that she'd had to dump the car because there were police tailing it. She'd managed to steal a drug lord's car. Besides, Wally figured that she was at least partially trying to be nice to him and let him run around now that he had his powers back.

Had she known that his powers were going to disappear that day he was captured? That panicked expression on her face when he'd fallen… she hadn't been surprised, just worried. She must have known. She must have already had prior knowledge that his powers were going to go out that day. Did Sportsmaster know? Icicle Jr.? Wally didn't think he'd be able to stand it if Cameron had known and hadn't said a thing about it.

Within moments, Wally set Cheshire down in front of a medium sized house that was nicer than the rest on the street and was obviously well-kept while the rest were rundown and ragged. Covert by being overt kind of thing, apparently.

Wally was silent as the two of them walked to the front door, Cheshire pulled out a key and turning the lock on the door, walking in casually as if this was something that she did every day of her life. He'd caught a slight side-glance as they walked through the doors, but other than that, there had been no comment or question.

The duo walked through the house, Cheshire easily taking the lead and bringing Wally down to the basement. There was a large room with monitors down there, comfortable chairs surrounding a high table with a few glasses and the remnants of a takeout meal on the counter. Dozing in one of the seats, head lolling back and mouth slightly open was Cameron. He looked like a mess, fingers on one hand taped together and the side of his face black and blue. There were rings under his eyes and even in sleep his mouth was drawn tight with worry.

Sportsmaster didn't seem nearly as concerned. He was sprawled out over another chair, legs akimbo and box of takeout on his lap, bottom half of his mask lifted to allow him to eat. His eyes glittered at Wally, seeming to stare through him. He sneered at the ginger speedster, "Welcome home, brat."

The sound woke Cameron, who started up for a moment before wincing and wrapping a protective hand around his midsection. He looked around and rubbed his face for a moment before his eyes widened and he leapt out of the chair. He called out, "Wally!" before slamming into the speedster, pulling him into a tight hug.

Even though Wally didn't know if Cameron was part of his powers disappearing or not, he had still missed one of his great friends and would never say no to a hug from the ice themed villain. Although, speaking of ice themed, Wally laughed, "You're freezing me to death over here, Cameron!"

Cameron pushed Wally away roughly, trying to frown, but not quite successful, "You deserve it! Going and getting kidnapped like that! What were you thinking? Idiot!"

Eyes crinkling at the corners, Wally laughed again, "It's good to see you again, Cam!"

Rolling his eyes, Cameron turned towards Sportsmaster, asking, "So, what's next? We heading back to the Light?"

There was something dark and oddly interested in Sportsmaster's eyes when he answered, "Not quite yet."

Wally didn't get a chance to say anything before Cheshire was whispering in his ear, "I'm sorry…" and gripping his arm tightly. He struggled but didn't get a chance to dislodge her before she was slashing a Sai through his wrist. He gasped and went still for a moment, shock dulling his reaction time as she grabbed his other wrist and did the same thing.

Things started to get fuzzy as blood splashed onto the floor. Wally heard Cameron being restrained by Sportsmaster. Cameron was yelling, "What are you doing? Why are you doing that? Stop!"

Sportsmaster got a strong hold around Cameron's neck, tightening his arm slightly to warn Cameron to stop struggling. With Wally gasping slightly and stumbling back onto one of the seats and Cameron finally still and silent, Cheshire explained what was going on, "When the Cave was created, we made sure that the mole gave us a backdoor entrance into the computer system. Unfortunately, Batman has removed that entrance, but we managed to get a bit of information beforehand. One of the…  _interesting_  things we learned was that when Momentum removed his inhibitor collar, a GPS substance was released that sank into his bloodstream. The only way to get it to stop transmitting is to induce excessive bleeding. We'll patch him up before he bleeds all the way out. We're not trying to kill him."

"Yet." Sportsmaster growled, menacing eyes trained on Wally.

Wally was still huffing, a headache blooming beneath his eyes and at his temples. He was getting tired quickly, eyes trying to slide shut without his permission. Had there seriously been GPS in his bloodstream? How had he missed that when going through the inhibitor collar? Or were they lying? Why would they do this then?

He heard Cameron asking quietly, "What do you mean, yet?"

Instead of answering, Cheshire started giving out instructions, "His wrists are starting to heal up. I'll have to cut them again when it finishes healing. While I'm doing that, I need you to go grab a change of clothes and a wet wash cloth. We'll get him changed in the car on our way back to HQ. Sportsmaster will be disposing of anything that we don't want the good guys to see. Once his wrists heal again, he should have bled enough that we won't have to worry about the GPS anymore. He'll probably sleep most of the way in the car, so I'll put you, Icicle Jr., in the backseat with him. Just watch and make sure that his wrists don't start bleeding again and check for a pulse periodically. Alright, go grab those clothes."

The others left the room as Cheshire almost tenderly cut Wally's wrists. He hissed quietly, and his fingers twitched. Cheshire smoothed a hand through his hair and whispered, "It's okay. You're going to be alright."

Wally slurred, "You know… what I've done… I'm… going to be killed." He started fading, black spots sprinkling into existence in the corners of his eyes and quickly expanding.

Right before he completely faded, he saw a movement. He watched as Cheshire took off her mask, face beautiful and dark eyes so completely heartbroken. She ran a hand over the side of his face, using her thumb to rub gently against his cheekbone. She kissed the top of his head and said, "Yeah, you probably are going to be killed." And then he was asleep.

It felt like a moment later when Wally woke again, the soft, subtle buzz of a car underneath him and the quiet music of Sportsmaster's favorite radio station playing. Not really caring if people knew that he was awake, Wally groaned and shifted a little, trying to relieve the pounding in his head.

Cameron's voice sounded from next to him, "Hey, Wally, hey. Don't move, okay? I'll move your chair up into a normal position, yeah? Just try not to move around so much."

Wally stilled upon hearing his words. Once his car seat had finally been moved up, Wally winced and rasped, "Not feeling so good."

Sportsmaster snorted, but Cheshire didn't join in, instead just signaling into another lane and saying, "Sportsmaster and I are going to get you some food and drinks from a gas station. You and Icicle Jr. stay in the car."

"Pretty sure I couldn't get up even if I wanted to." Wally groaned. Who knew losing a lot of blood sucked that much? Then again, it was probably worse for regular people because their wrists wouldn't heal as quickly as his did and their blood probably didn't regenerate as quickly either.

The car stopped and Sportsmaster and Cheshire got out after exchanging a look and reminding the teens in the back, once again, that they were not to leave the car while they were purchasing the food.

The moment the car door closed, Wally wrapped a weak hand around Cameron's forearm. Alarmed, Cameron tried to gently peel Wally's fingers off, "Hey, you're still recovering from all that blood loss. Don't overexert yourself."

Wally didn't let go, instead rasping, "Did you know?"

"Did I know what? Wally, what's going on?" Cameron asked, brows furrowed. The car was getting colder as she started to get more upset.

Forcing himself to let go and calm down, Wally leaned back in his seat and turned his head to face Cameron, "Did you know that the Light turned my powers off?"

Cameron's answer was immediate and emphatic, "No! I didn't know until I heard it afterwards while we were in that safe house trying to figure out a way to get you back and to track down Plastic Man."

Wally slumped down in his seat, tired down to his bones, "They're going to kill me."

Cameron frowned, fingers tightening into fists, "They're not going to kill you. That's just Sportsmaster being grouchy like usual. You know he says things like that just to make it seem like he doesn't care."

He seemed like he was going to go on, but Wally interrupted him, "You don't understand. I looked right at Red Arrow while he was in front of a ton of the mini-leaguers and I said, 'broken arrow.' I purposefully revealed the mole to them."

"That's not your fault!" Cameron protested immediately, warming Wally's heart. It was good to know that he was going to have someone on his side.

Wally argued anyways, "I know that I needed to say that to reasonably escape without worrying about retaliation, but I'm sure they'll think that I could have figured something else out. At the very least, I could have told them a fake mole or something like that. It still would have shocked them enough to make my getaway."

"That's not what I meant!" Cameron shook his head, fists clenching further, "I meant that it was my fault. Even if you hadn't done what you'd done, they still would have discovered the mole. I was the one who activated him and made him set the zeta beam and deliver that message to you. That was all me. Even if you didn't tell them, then they would have investigated how you got through the zeta beam and they would have seen Red Arrow messing with it. Wally, we can't go back to the Light. They're going to kill both of us. We both knowingly decimated their plans. I mean, I know that it wasn't actually your fault, but they'll probably blame both of us anyways. We need to figure out a way to escape."

Wally was already shaking his head as Cameron finished, "There is no escape. Think about who we're working for, Cam. This is the Light. They're probably the most powerful supervillain group around right now. And the Justice League? The Team? They can't beat the Light. How would they beat them? They don't have a clue what they're up against. They don't know at all what sort of plans are in place."

Cameron ran a shaky hand through his hair, "How can you say that? The League knows who the mole is! Now Red Arrow can't do whatever he was going to do to the League!"

"Do you know  _why_  he was going to do that to the Justice League?" Wally asked tiredly.

"No…" Cameron started uncertainly before shaking his head angrily, "That doesn't matter! It doesn't matter why! The League can win, now!"

"It doesn't matter if the League wins or not!" Wally huffed back, "This? All of this? It's  _phase one_. The rest of the plan has years before it's supposed to go into effect. It's designed so it works if the League wins or if the League loses. You think they don't have enough contingency plans in place to deal with this?"

Cameron paled considerably, which was an interesting sight. His normally blue tinted skin turned pure white. He ran a calmer hand through his shock of white hair, "Then what are we supposed to do? Just accept the fact that the Light is going to kill us? Just go back and let it happen?"

"Their trust in us will be damaged, but not irreparable. I have a trump card to play: they're experimenting on me, right? They thought that if they turned my powers off, then they wouldn't come on until they turned the powers back on. What they probably don't know is that my powers came back on at one point while they were supposed to be off. If I tell them that, then they have no choice but to keep me alive to keep experimenting. And I'll tell them that if they don't keep you alive and doing what you had been doing, then they're going to have a dead speedster on their hands." Wally explained, each word draining more and more out of him. He wasn't sure if he was going to be awake by the time that Cheshire came back with the food and drinks.

"I can't just watch you get experimented on for me! It hurt enough when you were always in the lab and that was by your own choice!" Cameron argued, the blue tint returning to his face and centering in his cheeks.

Wally scowled and said angrily, "It's our only chance at surviving! I don't particularly want to be experimented on either! If you've got a better idea, then go ahead and let me know!"

"There's no one we could go to? No one who could protect us? Come on, I know that between the two of us, we could get ironclad new identities." Cameron pleaded.

Wally snorted, "Yeah, the albino and the ginger teenagers with no adult around would never be found. It'd be impossible to find that with the Light's measly resources."

"I'm trying to help here!" Cameron shouted.

Wally closed his eyes and willed the pounding in his head to stop for just one second, "I know, Cameron, I know. And that means so much to me, but… I've thought about this. I've had plenty of time while I was stuck at the Cave. There's no escape."

"And we really couldn't ask the heroes to take us, to keep us hidden until the end? You really don't think they're going to win?" Cameron asked, expression morose and shoulders slumped.

"I really don't think they're going to win. But… if you really want to trust them to win, I'll go with you. As soon as I have enough energy again, I'll go with you and we can find them." Wally said, sincerely meaning it. He would never trust the heroes to defeat something as perfectly planned as the Light, but he would trust Icicle Jr. to be there with him when they needed to escape or flee or whatever. It wouldn't be a fun life and it'd be hard, but… if that's what Cameron wanted.

Slumping back in his seat, Cameron whispered, "If heroes were all that they were cracked up to be, they'd have saved us from ourselves a long time ago."

Wally huffed out a tired laugh, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.*"

Cameron laughed back, "Well, that's morbid. Where'd you come up with that one?"

Wally shrugged, "Don't know. Heard it somewhere before." They both sat in silence for a moment before Wally said, "Hey Cameron? If there's one place in the world you could go, where would it be?"

Cameron gave him a weird look, but answered anyways, "Vlatava. Count Vertigo always went on and on about how beautiful and perfect it was. Figured I'd check it out myself someday. You?"

Wally snorted, "You act like I haven't been everywhere I wanted to go. For two years, my life was entirely my own. I was the only person I relied on and I didn't have anyone worrying about me. I knew a lot of languages and I was great at pick-pocketing. I could travel the whole world whenever I wanted and go to any historical site or museum or concert or whatever. The world was mine to do what I wanted with."

"That sounds lonely." Cameron mused.

A small smile curved one side of Wally's lips, "There's a reason I gave it up so quickly."

There was another comfortable silence before Cameron said, "I can't promise that you'll never be alone again, even though I want to. But… I can promise that I'll do my best to stay with you for as long as I can. The two of us are going to take down the Light, together. We'll figure it out as we go, and we'll definitely end up on top. And then you can run me over to Vlatava, yeah?"

Wally laughed, "Yeah, sure thing. It's not like we helped Count Vertigo try to prevent the Queen from getting a heart transplant during a blizzard we started or anything like that. They'll definitely not have a problem with us showing up there or anything like that."

Cameron laughed, shaking his head. The slam of a car door broke off their laughter and they both jerked to attention, each wincing as various pains set in. Sportsmaster growled, "What are you laughing about, brats?"

"Ignore him and eat this instead. The sandwich and milkshake are for Icicle Jr. The rest is for Momentum. Icicle, make sure he doesn't fall asleep before he finishes eating." Cheshire growled, cutting off their explanations. The two teens glanced at each other silently before starting in on the food that had been handed to them.

As Wally started eating the cookies laid out for him, he stared thoughtfully at the back of Cheshire's chair. He remembered her taking off her mask and staring at him with such a devastatingly sad expression when she said that he'd probably be killed. There was something about that face that had seemed painfully familiar, but he couldn't figure it out. He wasn't sure he wanted to. If he was going to be actively moving against the Light, then there was no point in getting close to Cheshire. She was almost certain to choose the Light over him and he couldn't risk getting pulled in by her. She'd already manipulated him into so much.

At the same time, she'd seemed so sad when she said he was going to die. Cheshire had seemed like she'd genuinely cared. Wally had always had an inkling that Cheshire cared about the teenagers of the Light a lot more than she let on. He wasn't sure if it was something to do with her past or if she thought they didn't belong there or if she just thought that they were better company than the rest. He didn't know, but he was pretty sure that she grew more attached to them then she was supposed to, considering her position and her job.

Was there a bit of herself that she saw in the kids? Was there something that she wanted from them? Wally didn't know. He didn't understand her at all, but he figured that was what she was going for. She didn't want people to understand. She was trying to live her life all alone like he had not too long ago. Cheshire had certainly managed this lonely lifestyle for a long time, but Wally knew from experience that eventually she was going to realize that she needed to rely on someone else once in a while. Hopefully she figured it out sooner rather than later.

As for himself, Wally needed to figure out a game plan. He had Cameron supporting him, but that was it. It was the two of them against the world. He was fairly certain that he could convince the higher ups to keep him alive and he was almost as convinced that he could keep Cameron alive and doing what he'd been doing, but it still wasn't enough. With those positions, neither of them would be in any place to get any kind of important info. They'd be sitting ducks with no clue of what was actually going on.

Beyond that, even if one of them got information, how were they going to communicate that to each other? Wally was going to be stuck in labs (and that thought made his skin crawl and panic blur the edges of his eyesight) for the rest of his time and there was no chance that they were going to let Icicle Jr. go and see him, not when the ice-themed villain was being watched for suspicious behavior. They'd have to figure something out in that regards. They could try to find someone to act as an in between, but that was a lot of trust to give to someone they didn't know and, even then, there was no guarantee that Cameron would get  _any_  time where he'd be free enough to not be watched while he met the in between person.

And besides, none of that even mattered in the long run if Wally couldn't think of a way to dismantle the Light. He didn't have as much clearance as he could have, but he knew about the plan to get the League to commit some sort of intergalactic crime that would get them out of the way while some sort of group took over the earth. He didn't know any more details than that, though. So… the best way to stop the Light from achieving their goals would be to destroy the tech that the Light was going to use to control the League.

That didn't help him, though. All that would do would be to paint a target on his back and probably make the council so mad that they'd kill him regardless of his usefulness. If he could stop their plans without being caught, that would be the best method. They'd be in complete disarray without a way to get the Justice League out of the way when the time came. So, how to stop their plan without being implicated?

He could always convince someone else to do it for him, but with the number of mind readers and torturers in the compound, there was zero chance that the person wouldn't give him up. Obviously, doing it himself would be nearly impossible because he'd be stuck in a lab, but even if it was possible, he'd get caught. Cameron was in the same boat.

Cameron's words about going to the heroes for protection rung in Wally's head. Maybe… maybe if he got the heroes to stop the plan. If they knew about the plan and could keep it a secret that they knew, then they'd surely be able to stop it. But what if they didn't? Then Wally had just trusted them with his only chance. He'd already said that he didn't trust the heroes to be able to defeat the Light. Could he trust them to do that single thing? Could he trust them to do  _anything_?

Images of Robin flashed through his mind. Robin was… he was powerful and skilled and super intelligent. He saw connections that no one else saw and he came up with great strategies. He was amazing. Despite his best judgement, despite every piece of him that said that it was a bad idea, Wally trusted Robin. But did he trust Robin to make sure that everyone else did what they were supposed to do?

And even if somehow Wally miraculously started trusting the heroes to stop this one plot, how would Wally even get in contact with them? How would he even let them know what to do? There was no way that he or Cameron would be able to get in contact with them? And if he somehow defied all odds and got in contact with them, what would he do next? How would he finish the job? What could he use to bring the Light down, permanently. The villains had been in and out of jail for years. Nothing could keep them where they were.

The moment they got out of jail, they'd come back together, and Wally and Cameron would be dead.

So, Wally needed to find something to split the Light on. He needed to tear them apart. That shouldn't be that hard. They were never all that cohesive in the first place.

There, Wally had made some sort of semblance of a plan. Step one: figure out exactly how the Light plans to make the League enact a crime elsewhere in the universe. Step two: inform Robin of this and make sure he stops it. Step three: figure out something that will make the Light split while they're scrambling to fix their plans and pull things back together. Step four: actually split the Light. Step five: get the members of the Light arrested. Step six: go home.

He had exactly none of those steps figured out and had zero clue how he was going to achieve any of them, but it was a start at least and that's always something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning: you're catching up to what I already have written. I've written up to chapter 62 and I'm trying to post as often as possible. I haven't gotten a chance to write in a while because life's been crazy, so I'm stagnant at chapter 62. If you guys do catch up with what I've already written, then you'll have to wait for once a week updates. Sorry!


	48. Worse Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, there is a part in here that's got a rather detailed description of blood. Like, I grossed myself out writing it, so just a warning. It's, like, a paragraph long, so it's not that bad, but if you want to skip it, then skip the paragraph after the sentence, "This must have been awful for him." Just letting you guys know in case blood is what really gets to you.

DDDDDD

Dick was enthusiastically engaged in the plan until he heard his phone ding slightly in his pocket. He knew instinctually that it was the burner phone he'd been using to contact Wally. Did that mean? Surely, that had to mean that it was Momentum. There was no one else that knew this number. An ugly voice in the back of his mind said that Momentum could have given the number and the alias to his employers, effectively destroying this identity before it got a chance to even be really used.

No, he couldn't think like that. Wally wouldn't do that to him. Quickly, Dick pulled his phone out and glanced at the message. The number wasn't one he recognized, but he opened it anyways. The Team still had Wally's burner phone, so there was still a chance that Wally hadn't sold him out. When Dick started reading the lines of text, he knew that he was right. This was Wally.

The text itself broke his heart. It was painful how considerate Wally was being in the text. Dick wanted to be mad at him, to accuse him, to hate him for running back to that evil organization, but he couldn't. He especially couldn't when Wally tried to assure him that the Team hadn't done anything wrong in getting him to trust them. Dick hadn't even hinted towards the fact that he was worried about that and Wally knew how to assuage the worries.

But Wally didn't trust them to take out the Light. Why? Why was he so determined that they didn't have a chance of winning? What was it that he knew that they didn't that made him believe that they didn't have a chance? They knew who the mole was. What else was there to know? Heart heavy and mind racing, Dick kept reading.

He didn't believe Wally when the speedster said that he didn't understand loyalty. In Dick's mind, Wally was one of the most loyal people he knew. Sure, Wally left people at the drop of a hat and always had one foot out the door, but that didn't mean that he wasn't loyal. Roy had told Dick that the only thing that got Wally to agree with the criminal informant thing was the knowledge that Wally wouldn't have to get dirt on the Rogues. This was when Wally thought that he'd been abandoned by the Rogues, so that was saying something.

And, from what Dick could tell of the missions that the Team knew Wally had run for the Light, he'd stayed true to their strict code of moral conduct. Wally had never given away Dick's identity to anyone. He was loyal, just… not in the traditional sense. And, honestly, that was what Wally was. He was everything, just not in the traditional sense. It was actually pretty amusing.

What wasn't amusing was the ending. Wally actually told Dick to never contact him again. He stressed the thought and then said goodbye, presumably permanently. He said he was going to miss Dick. Dick wanted more than anything to send a message that said the same thing back. He wanted to be furious at Momentum, but Wally was too sweet and understanding to even pretend to be mad at.

It didn't matter, though. They were going to find him, and they were going to defeat the Light and Wally was going to see that they were trustworthy after all. Wally was just going to have to wait until they tracked him down and got him.

At least, that was his thoughts until he saw Batman shift out of the corner of his eye. His mentor's scowl grew fiercer as he glanced at the computer, quietly clicking away at the keyboard and scowling more. There was something wrong.

Knowing that if Batman wanted to draw attention to it, then he would have already, Dick stayed quiet, drawing himself back into the discussion with half of his attention still on his mentor. For another few moments, Batman's tension increased, but the rest of the room still didn't seem to notice anything.

Finally, Batman looked up and broke over whatever it was that Clark had been saying, "We have a problem."

That certainly got everyone's attention. Green Arrow and Green Lantern dropped their heads and groaned in unison and Diana asked sharply, "What is wrong?"

Batman stared out at the group, "Momentum's tracker has gone offline."

Dick's face paled dramatically, "I thought you said that the only way that could happen was if he lost a lot of blood." Apparently, that hadn't occurred to the rest of the group, because everyone else's faces paled with those words. What happened to Wally? Why was he hurt? Was he dead? What attacked him? What was going on?

Batman swept upwards silently, stalking through the door. The rest of the Justice League and the Team scrambled after him. He carefully inputted a location into the zeta beam and swept into the machine, a drab voice announcing his departure from above. One by one, the rest piled in.

They found themselves in a quiet alleyway between two suburbs in a city that Dick didn't recognize. It looked quiet and sleepy and not at all like the sort of place that should have a veritable small army of superheroes traipsing through it. Batman led them through shortcuts and small forest paths until they reached the back of a quaint little house that was larger and tidier than the rest of the houses on the lane, backyard pristinely mowed, and fence painted a brilliant white.

Carefully, quietly, the group moved towards the house, expressions tense. They reached the backdoor. Batman made a series of complicated hand gestures that only Dick, and the League members got. It was something that Batman never set aside time to teach the Team about. Dick realized that he should probably bring that up at some point because the Team was hovering, confused, in the background. Quickly, Dick nudged at their telepathic link, sending out,  _He wants us to stay here with a couple of the League members and Plastic Man. The rest of them are going to go through the house. They'll let us know when it's clear._

The Team nodded back to him solemnly. They all knew that there was a good chance that they were going to be finding Wally's dead body in this house. How else could he have lost enough blood to have gotten rid of the trackers in his bloodstream?

It was a tense few moments where the Team sat outside and waited for their mentors to finish the search. Kaldur had one hand on Dick's shoulder and the younger teen relished in the small contact while he could, expression tight with worry and fear. He thought back to the text he'd gotten. Could that have been his last bit of communication with the ginger speedster? Was that the end of their friendship?

Batman looming in the doorway brought Dick out of his depressing contemplation. He blinked wide eyes as Batman motioned them forward. The warning look Batman sent him made Dick's stomach clench into knots. There was definitely something in the house that Batman didn't want him to see. Some of the League members went back outside, joining the others that were already there. There were only so many people who could comfortably fit in this house at once and the League respected that the Team had a vested interest in investigating this. Apparently, Batman, Plastic Man, Red Arrow, and Flash did too, because they were the only adults that came down into the basement with them.

Dick immediately had to crush down the urge to vomit as a strong coppery scent invaded the room. Connor paled and pinched his nose shut, expression tensed. This must have been awful for him.

When Dick finally got past the scent, he took a moment to glance around the room. At least, he tried to. His eyes were immediately stuck on the enormous pool of drying blood on the carpet. From the pattern and spread, it looked as if there had been two epicenters of blood splatter that eventually spread enough to merge together in the center. The thick grey carpet was clogged with the blood, congealed bits stuck on the plush chair that seemed to be in the center of the blood. Some of the blood seemed to have hardened and crusted towards the edges of the pool, while others were jelly-like clumps that wiggled when people took steps forward. There was, of course, large amounts of blood that hadn't had the time to soak into the carpet yet and was simply sitting there in a wet pool around the chair legs.

Breathing harsh and face chalk white under his cowl, Flash stepped forward with shaky legs. He clenched his fists before crouching down and announcing, "The blood all seems to have been released at roughly the same time. I'd say over a five to ten-minute interval. Based on the way the blood goes down the couch and the fact that there seems to have originally been two pools of blood, I'd say… I'd say his… wrists were… slit." Barry swallowed harshly, and Dick thought that he hadn't heard Flash take so long to get words out in a long time. Barry continued, "Assuming he would lose blood at roughly the same speed as I would and, additionally, that he would replace the blood at the roughly the same speed as I would… I think, based on the amount of blood that seems to be here and the fact that there's no body, that he's alive. Theoretically, he could survive this much blood loss. He's going to have a wicked headache and he's going to be exhausted for a couple of days, but I think he'll be fine. He should be able to regenerate the blood fast enough."

Artemis's voice was clogged with horror when she asked, "But why? Why would they do…  _this_? Who even did this?"

Batman's expression was stone when he answered, "My guess is that the same group that was with him when you captured Momentum is the group that did this to him. There are signs around the house and, especially, here in the basement that point towards this being a Light safehouse. They most likely left that evidence here to mock us. As to why they did this… they were likely trying to get rid of the trackers."

Plastic Man shook his head, eyes seemingly glued to the expanse of blood, "How would they  _know_? How could they have possibly known about the tracker? Wally obviously didn't, or he'd have prevented it before he left."

Roy's voice was blank and his expression scarily similar to the one he'd worn when Wally had said 'broken arrow', when Roy answered Plastic Man's question, "Me. It must have been me. Maybe I gave them access to the system and they heard us through our tech. Maybe I put up cameras for them. I don't know. But it had to have been because of me."

"You mean it had to have been because the Light are manipulative monsters." Flash said firmly, finally standing and stepping away from the blood on the floor. Roy's expression twisted, but he didn't say anything.

There was a pause of silence where everyone weighed the situation before Kaldur spoke and said the words that everyone had been trying to avoid saying, "So, we no longer know where Wally is. We cannot find him."

WWWWWW

Wally spent most of the car ride sleeping. When he wasn't sleeping, he'd just silently, drearily, listen to whatever was playing on the radio until it lulled him back to sleep. The splitting headache and the bone-weary tiredness never seemed to lessen while they were driving, but when the car stopped, and Wally was shaken awake, he realized that both had drifted away a little, more like suggestions at the back of his mind than the crushing presence they'd been before.

Still, Wally had to practically lean entirely on Cameron as they made their way from the parking garage to the main conference room where the heads met. Wally had been kind of hoping that everyone would just leave him alone for a day or two and allow him to recover, but apparently, they were doing this whole thing right now. That was okay. Wally could deal. It was going to suck, but he could deal.

Thankfully, someone had thought to set out chairs for the group. Wally practically fell into his, not even caring that the lead council of the Light were already there, watching him pant and struggle to get from the door to the chair. Cameron was a little more graceful, but only because he was forced to move slowly by the pain in his ribs. Sportsmaster and Cheshire sat on either side of the two teenagers, bracketing them.

Luthor opened his mouth to speak, but Savage was faster, growling out, " _Idiot boy!_ How  _dare_  you  _humiliate_  us this way?"

When Wally did nothing but flounder for an answer, Luthor took back control of the conversation. His expression was regretful and angry, a hint of something bitter that said that he'd lost. He spoke carefully and without true emotion, "Wally. Unfortunately, due to your actions which have proved to be counterproductive to the aims of this organization, we will need to kill you."

By the time he'd finished speaking, Wally had gotten better control of himself. He knew what he needed to do. He lifted his chin and ignored the rest of the council, looking straight at Luthor, "You won't kill me." He heard Savage's angry growl but resisted the urge to flinch away or glance in the immortal's direction.

Luthor raised an interested eyebrow, "And why is that?"

Wally continued carefully, "You won't kill me because your experiment won't work if you do. That whole thing with turning my power off? I bet you think that you successfully turned my powers off until you got them back on earlier today. They didn't turn off all the way. I was still able to think at superspeed. My heartbeat still moved at superspeed. The entirety of my superspeed came back for a couple seconds at one point. Your little experiment didn't work, and I don't think you want to go through this whole process with a new person."

By this point, even Ra's al Ghul was looking interested. Wally could just see him in his peripheral, leaning forward with eager, glittering eyes and a dark expression. It made a chill sweep through him, causing him to clench his fists and put all of his attention back onto Luthor.

The man looked  _ecstatic_. There was something insane about how intrigued and happy he looked, and Wally felt a part of him die at the sight. That was not going to end well for him. Luthor's lips curled up into a cruel smirk, "So, what I'm hearing is that you will go freely to be experimented on if we let you live."

Wally's jaw clenched, and he lifted his head again, "No. What you heard was why you were going to keep me alive. You haven't heard my conditions yet." He heard Sportsmaster snort from off to Icicle Jr.'s side, and Wally glanced over to see Sportsmaster give him a nod of what seemed to be approval.

Cheshire was basically on the other end of the spectrum, faced slightly away from Wally and arms crossed over her chest. There was disapproval lining her shoulders and anger caught in her tensed muscles. Wally didn't know what was wrong with her. Did she want him to be killed? Would that have been preferable to her? Then again, she'd been acting off since Wally had first seen her after getting kidnapped. There was something that was bothering her, but there was a good chance that Wally was never going to figure it out. Maybe someday, but considering the fact that, currently, it looked like the rest of his days were going to be spent getting experimented on, then maybe that someday would never come.

It didn't matter. Cheshire wasn't his priority right now. Right now, he needed to make sure that his conditions were met. Savage had gone silent with rage, veins pulsing and expression quite frankly more terrifying than Wally had ever seen. This group of  _monsters_  that stared down at Wally would haunt his nightmares for a long time. They weren't human anymore. There was no part of them that could even pretend to be human and it was terrifying.

Luthor finally spoke again, tone amused and indulgent, like a parent talking to their slightly spoiled child, "And what would those conditions be?"

Wally listed off his first one immediately, without any hesitation, "Icicle Jr. does not get hurt by you. I get to see him, even if it's through a glass or whatever, every other day. If he is hurt one of those days and it was by you, I'll kill myself." There was a sharp intake of breath from Cheshire, but she didn't say anything. Cameron was sitting with his head held high, ready for the occasion.

"I believe that can be granted. There will, of course, be times that Icicle Jr. is injured on missions. Do you intend to… kill yourself… if that happens?" Luthor practically purred. He wasn't taking this seriously. He would comply with Wally's demands only because he thought that there was no harm that could come from it, because it amused him to watch Wally dance on his strings. It made Wally sick to his stomach. For the moment, though, he'd have to play along. Someday, he was going to surprise Luthor. He was going to knock that smug grin off his face and he was going to laugh.

Today, unfortunately, was not the day. Luthor was still infuriatingly condescending when he asked, "And will there be any other conditions?"

Hands shaking slightly (in rage, or fear? Wally couldn't tell), Wally said, "Just one more. I want to continue my training with Cheshire."

Queen Bee barked out a laugh, the first sound one of the other council members had made since Savage had quit growling, "You are aware of how…  _vigorous_  these experiments can be, correct? Surely you cannot except to keep up a training regime at the same time."

Expression cold and completely unaffected by the sultry charm that Queen Bee wore next draped around her shoulders, Wally stated blandly, "I'm sure I can handle it."

Affronted and angry that someone dared to spoil her fun, Queen Bee's eyes darkened, and she turned her nose up, "I will very much look forward to the moment when you realize you cannot handle it and you break under the knowledge that it will never stop." The two stared at each other for a moment, expressions dark and foreboding. Honestly, though, Wally wasn't afraid of her. Sure, Queen Bee was a big hitter with a literal empire at her feet, but she didn't have the same level of intelligence as Luthor or Savage. She didn't have the same level of insanity as Klarion or, he suspected, Ra's al Ghul. She just wasn't that threatening when compared with the rest of them. Wally could see, reflected in her eyes, that she knew it too.

After a moment, Queen Bee dropped her gaze, cheeks heating in shame. Wally was certain that particular incident was going to come back to bite him at some point, but, again, that was not today. All he could do from this point on was to focus on the present. The future didn't matter. The past didn't matter. All he needed was the present to keep going.

Luthor watched him delightedly as he verbally sparred with Queen Bee and won. He commented, "Consider your demands met so long as you continue to allow us to experiment on you and you do not attempt to escape." He paused for a moment, a threat in his eyes the only warning he needed to give, before continuing, "Now, let us begin. I have someone here who can take you to your  _new_ home in the science labs. He's not particularly charming, but I have the strangest thought that you'll get along great. At the very least, I know that he's so very excited to see you."

There was something wrong with that whole speech. There was something inherently  _wrong_  in the predatory glances that everyone was giving him. It made Wally feel trapped, and vulnerable. There was something that they knew that he didn't, and he could already tell that he hated it. Throat tightening and hands shaking, Wally got up and turned around slowly, knowing that, whoever this person was, they were waiting behind the chair he was sitting around.

When he did finally turn around, he immediately regretted it. Death would have been a better option. He should have let the Light kill him and Cameron and left the heroes to struggle on their own. This was worse than anything they could have done to him.

There, stood in front of him, expression twisted with dark, childish delight, was his father.


	49. Mother's Touch

WWWWWW

Wally wasn't proud of his reaction, but he figured that the near future was going to be full of a lot of moments that he wasn't entirely proud of. His eyes landed on his father and he tried to backpedal so fast that he tripped himself, slamming onto the carpet, arms braced behind him to catch his weight. Wally's eyes were big and wide and terrified as he stared at his father. This couldn't be real. It couldn'tthiswasanightmareitcouldn'tbe –

Wait. No, no, no. That meant… Breath rasping and pulse fluttering erratically, Wally just managed to turn to accuse Luthor, "It was you. The first time I was experimented on. My father sold me to you."

Luthor's smile was entirely predatory as he leaned forward, "While you were in the hospital after the lightning strike, your father realized that there was something…  _off_  about you. He immediately started looking around for a place to put you. He found my Everyman Project in its beginning phases. I want to be able to give normal, everyday people metahuman powers. Everyman should get that ability. Unfortunately, I did not have enough information about actual metahumans to start this process. I had to use actual metahumans as test subjects. He thought that my program would be a great place for you. Your two years of being experimented on and tortured greatly increased our scope of knowledge. When I saw you again with the Rogues, I had to have you. All of our other original subjects were dead. We have developed the process to turn someone into a metahuman, but I wanted an off switch. In case the person decided they didn't want the powers after all. So, we needed someone who's data we already had to get this last bit of information. You were the only one. I made sure you ended up joining the Light and allowing yourself to be experimented on again. It was rather unfortunate that Plastic Man ended up being such a good double agent, but that could not be helped. You are back now. And you won't be leaving again."

Cameron was staring at Wally in abject horror and Wally realized that he'd never actually told Cameron about his past. It just wasn't something that he brought up regularly. There weren't a lot of people who would know. Based on the reactions of the rest of the people in the room, though, Cameron was the only one who didn't know.

Luthor was still looking at him with that predatory gleam. Savage was watching Wally with undisguised delight, as if he were amused by the thought of Wally suffering. He probably was.

Ra's al Ghul's voice was sickly sweet and concerned like someone's old grandfather, "Did you not want to go with him? You can always choose to die instead."

Wally felt trapped, walls constricting around him. He truly was in the middle of an enemy stronghold, completely at their mercy. His only connection was Icicle Jr. and he couldn't do a thing without getting himself killed as well, and neither of them wanted that.

Without any other options, without any chance of escape or bargaining, Wally caught his breath and carefully stood up. His lessened headache had racketed up about ten notches with his sudden movement and fall and he was more exhausted than when he'd woken up the first time in the car. Still, though, he clenched his fists and slowed his trembling. Head held high and limbs stable and firm – no shaking even though he was terrified and exhausted – Wally walked forward.

He wasn't going to say any sort of trash about not being afraid anymore because he'd seen true evil and his past didn't touch that. He wasn't going to pretend to be brave and unable to feel pain because he was being self-sacrificing. That was for heroes and he never once claimed to be a hero.

Wally was, however, going to say that he wasn't going to let his father see his fear anymore. He was a Rogue and Rogues were prouder than that. They didn't let two-bit thugs like his father get a reaction out of them. They were better than that.  _Wally_  was better than that.

Slowly, Wally reached his father. He clenched his fists and stared straight into his father's eyes (it was something he'd never really been allowed to do, and it was strange doing it now, glancing into those pools of madness that had ruined his life). For a moment, his father stared back, nothing but madness gleaming in his eyes.

And then he punched Wally.

Honestly, Wally should have moved out of the way. It was a fist moving about as fast as a medium speed human could move it. He saw it coming. He recognized what was going on. He could have been on the other side of the state before his father made contact. But this was his father. For  _years_ , so many early years, it was habit to just let his father do this, to just let him punch Wally. It honestly didn't even occur to Wally to duck out of the way. There was no warning system, no concern. It was just… normal.

It terrified Wally that it was still normal.

His punch didn't do much, though. It couldn't. Wally's father might be strong for a regular human, but he was just a guard for a human experimentation facility. He wasn't a desperate meta looking for food on the street. He wasn't a disgusted meta-hating human in an alleyway. He wasn't Cheshire. He wasn't the Team. He was just a regular human that would never amount to anything.

It was that thought that allowed Wally to lift his head after his father punched him. His eye was rapidly swelling, and Wally knew that it would only be a moment before the bruise started fading again. Wally wanted his father to see that. He wanted his father to see that he was a meta and he was proud. His father might be disgusted by the thought of metas, might enjoy what was about to happen to Wally, but that would never affect Wally again. The speedster wasn't going to let anyone make him hate his powers again. They were the best thing that had ever happened to him and he never wanted them gone. And his father was going to see that in Wally's eyes and in his fading bruise and he was just going to have to deal. No matter what he did to Wally, the speedster wasn't going to change his mind.

That evidently got across to his father because the man's face twisted in displeasure and disgust. Grabbing Wally's shoulder with one firm hand, he shoved Wally up against a wall, putting a knee in the middle of Wally's back and holding him there as he cinched an inhibitor collar around Wally's neck.

Wally felt a little bit of himself die at the feeling. He was spending way too much time in these things. He  _hated_  these things. His father then took a cord and wrapped it around Wally's hands several times before adding a zip-tie. His father then pulled him away from the Wally and shoved him forward, towards the door. Wally tried to look behind him (whether to give comfort to Cameron, or to get it from him, he didn't know), but his father slapped the back of his head, getting him to look forward again and keep moving. This really was it. No backing out. No escaping.

His father was silent as they walked, moving towards the wing of the building that housed the room where Wally had allowed himself to be experimented on. It still sickened him to think that he'd walked himself into this situation. It was all his fault. He'd allowed them to manipulate and push him around until he did exactly what they wanted.

What Wally hadn't expected, hadn't even thought about, was the other members of the Light. He was always closest to Cameron and the back to back training, lab sessions, and missions didn't really allow for him to be all that social within the organization, but he'd still made some acquaintances. He'd always been pretty good at making friends with villains; it was one of the things that he did the best at with the Rogues. They'd actually started letting him completely take over negotiations with other criminals.

Now, they stared at him with horror written across their faces as he was marched down the hallways, wrists tied behind his back and dark inhibitor collar standing out against his pale skin and bright red hair. There were shouts and jeers and, for a moment, Wally flushed with shame, embarrassed by the whole situation. Then, he realized that they were jeering at his father. All of their comments were against him, telling him to let Wally go and get those restraints off. They were calling him a coward and a cheat and far worse things. They were defending Wally against his own father even though they barely knew him. There were a couple of them who didn't even know Wally, just knew  _of_  him. And yet, they all fought for him.

This was the honor amongst thieves that is rumored throughout the world. This is what worked to first convince Wally that being a criminal was actually pretty fun. Bolstered by their support and unwavering faith and their assumptions that of course it was Wally's father that did something wrong, Wally lifted his head again, flush disappearing and mischievous light entering his eyes. He wasn't some broken kid. He'd promised himself that he was going to keep his head on straight, that he was going to live for himself and himself only, that he was going to keep everything together.

This was his life.

Eventually, they made it to the room where Wally had gone countless times before to go through his checkups and get experimented on. The room was empty when they reached it. Wally slowed as he saw the door on the other side of the room that lead to a blank white hallway. A memory scratched its way to the surface of his mind, dropping him back into that same hallway, years ago.

_Wally heaved desperately. It was like some sort of horror movie. His hospital slacks were covered in dried blood. His hands were covered in blood – some of it his own from his many wounds, and some of it from the guard who he'd attacked to get out of this godforsaken place._

_His cut up bare feet were leaving gory footprints behind him, drops of blood spattering on the ground intermittently, bloody smears of handprints on the walls from when he'd needed to pause a take a breather. If someone had wanted to follow him, they'd have no problem. The hope was, though, that they wouldn't try to follow him. Normally, there was an airtight system in place to keep the metas from escaping. There was never a time when there was only one person with him, or at least watching him. But Wally had graduated high school today (and shouldn't that have been a whole lot more exciting) and the scientists made some sort of breakthrough at the same time. It meant a lab-wide celebration._

_Wally had been there for two years. Any and all escape attempts had been easily thwarted and, after a while, beaten out of him. He was exhausted from an intense experimentation session and he'd been eating significantly less food than he needed as part of another experiment. Theoretically, they should have been able to relax. In their minds, there was nothing left of him that was willing to take punishment or incite wrath. In their minds, they had already molded the perfect test subject._

_So, understandably, security was lax that day. What they didn't know, though, was that Wally hadn't given up. He'd just stopped being so naïve. He'd realized that he needed to wait for a moment like this to strike. He couldn't just run when a window showed itself. He needed to run when a whole night opened up. Even if he was caught, there was a good chance that the rest of the guards were drunk enough that he could disorient and disable them before they could catch him again._

_And, honestly, as much as it turned his stomach and made his skin crawl, Wally was willing to kill the guards to get out. He wouldn't survive in this much longer. He just wouldn't. There was no chance._

_So, he beat the single guard that had been escorting him to the washing room and ripped his inhibitor collar off. And then he ran. He ran and ran and ran until he could barely see straight, white walls blending into white walls blending into white walls. The place was a circular labyrinth. Wally was pretty sure that there actually wasn't any exit. That's certainly the way it felt to the scared thirteen-year-old dripping blood through each hallway._

_His head pounded, and his legs were already weaving. He hadn't even started really running, determined to wait to start that until he was outside and could run wherever in the world he wanted to. He knew enough languages that there were plenty of options._

_Still, that didn't really help him when he was still trying to get out of the stupid building._

_Wally didn't know how long he wandered through those hallways. All he knew was that at some point, he stopped really processing things. The white walls didn't register. The warm blood and sweat didn't register. The sounds of the alarm finally going off didn't register. The coppery smell of blood and the sharp scent of antiseptics didn't register._

_The next thing he knew, Wally was standing outside, blinking into the sunlight for the first time in two years. Hissing sharply, he threw up a hand to protect himself from the light. It hurt! Had sunlight always been that painful? Wally felt like his skin was already burning._

_He tilted slightly to the side, vision wavering and legs buckling. Gasping, Wally righted himself against a tree and then prepared to run. Behind him, he heard the sounds of men pouring out of the building. He didn't look back. He didn't dare. The sounds of pursuit being the final push, Wally shot off, racing through the land at superspeed. He was free._

_He was finally free…_

Wally came back to himself with the feel of the back of his head getting slapped again. It wasn't the same as when Len did it. This head slap was entirely malicious. Hunching his shoulders slightly, Wally started walking again, not even aware that he'd stopped. The shaking that he'd tried so desperately to hide was trying to come back again. Wally was determined that it wasn't going to happen. His father and all those scientists and the guards weren't going to see him shake, even if it felt like he was going to fly apart with how much he shook inside.

Finally, the two of them reached another set of doors. Wally's father pushed him through, almost causing Wally to into the harsh light of the room, Wally tried to move a hand to block it, momentarily forgetting that his hands were tied together. All that did was cause the cords to dig into his skin, the sharp feeling so painfully reminiscent of Cheshire's actions earlier in the day that Wally felt his stomach clench painfully. Was that really just this morning? Had he only escaped from the Team  _this morning_? How was it that everything was blurring together so firmly, that it was going so quickly when all he knew was the painfully slow passage of time.

As Wally twisted his head and squinted his eyes in the bright, sharp light that bounced off pure white walls, he caught glimpses of the scientists. White lab coats and brown clipboards and  _hungry_ faces made Wally try to shift back, running into hard muscle that clenched his wrists in one strong hand, causing Wally to gasp and twist in his father's grasp.

That insufferably bright white light was still stabbing into Wally's eyes and he kept shifting his head, trying to protect his eyes from that light. There were figures advancing from all sides. There were guards mixed in with the scientists. They all wore hungry expressions. There was a metallic clang in the background. The sound rung and rung and rung in the looping hallways until Wally couldn't tell if the metal thing had been dropped three hallways away or directly next to him. A hot breath panted in his ears, hands like a vice around his wrists. The scientists kept getting closer. Wally couldn't escape. He wasn't going to let them touch him again. They were going to hurt him. They were getting closer. He couldn't get out. There was a sharp prick just below the inhibitor collar. Something flushed through his veins and the world morphed around him, bright shocking sounds and lights fading into dark horror. Scientist faces merging to become one terrible beast bent on his destruction. The black shadow of his future swallowed him whole.

JJJJJJ

Jade sat unmoving on her bed. After a few more seconds of practiced stillness, her hands started to shake. She wanted to hit herself. She wanted to scream. Wally had gone all the way to the scientists without shaking and he had signed himself back into a life of agony that he'd worked so incredibly hard to escape. And Jade couldn't stop herself from shaking? Pitiful.

Then again, when was she anything but? She was just… pitiful. Why was this affecting her so much? What did she care that Wally was doing this to himself? It was his own fault for being so naïve and so willing to do whatever to please people! It was his own fault for being stupid enough to fall into this life. None of this was on her. None of this was her fault.

So, if it wasn't her fault, then why did she feel like it was? Why did she feel like she had lost the last good part of her? Honestly, she hadn't even thought that there was anything good or pure left in her damaged, fire tested soul. Then she had met Wally.

He was just so… pure and innocent weren't the right words. Neither was good. He was a villain just like her. He didn't care who he stole from or who's financial life he ruined. Wally wasn't a good person. He'd left pure behind with every crime he'd committed and every time he fought against superheroes and came out in one piece. Jade wasn't sure if he'd ever really had innocence to begin with. If he had, then it had been wiped out pretty quickly. There was just something else about him that just clicked with her. It made her feel better, lighter, happier. Those weren't things she felt very often.

And then, she'd started to feel protective of him. Wally was her mark, the person she was supposed to manipulate into going with the Light's plans. And she felt protective of him. Pitiful, a voice sneered in her mind. It sounded suspiciously like her father.

Burying her face in her shaking hands, Jade willed herself to calm down. She'd seen people forced into bad situations before. That was basically par for course in the League of Assassins. She'd seen it plenty of times as a child when her father forced her and Artemis into countless situations that were horrible for two little girls to go through. The idea that people oftentimes didn't get a choice on their life situations was something that Jade had accepted early in life.

Still, it wasn't fair. Every single day, she thought about how unfair it was. The amount of teen villains in the Light was sickening. Wally. Cameron. Shimmer. There were more. Far too many more. And they were  _so desperate_. Every single one pushed themselves far past their limits just to please. It was wrong. It was  _so wrong_.

And not a single one of them saw that. Not a single one realized that they were throwing their lives away. Why couldn't they be better than her? Why couldn't they have given up this life before they became this deeply entrenched in it? God knows that she could never have given this life up, but surely, they could have managed it. Surely, they could have been better than her.

But they weren't. Instead, they were bargaining their lives for each other, for themselves. They had to choose between experimentation and death. They had to choose between working for an organization that was willing to eliminate you because of a grudge and death. It was cruel. This world wasn't meant for children. And yet, suddenly, it seemed like there were only children making up the world.

The worst part was, Jade couldn't do a thing about it. She would be throwing away her entire career, her entire lifestyle if she tried to stop it. She probably wouldn't even succeed. She just had to watch these children crumble under the pressure.

Bitterly, Jade thought about how easy it would be for Artemis to do something about this. The blonde archer wouldn't even stop for a moment to think about it before she would be rushing in to save those children. She would never deliberate on how it would affect her, only immediately moving to put everything on the line for others. That was what was always different between the two sisters. Artemis was always a hero at heart and Jade was always a villain. It was just how things were.

Jade entertained thoughts about what the heroes would do if they knew about what was going on in the Light. How would they react? What would they do to save those kids?

Shaking her head, black hair tumbling around her shoulders, Jade blinked back tears. No. What was she thinking? That was treason. She absolutely could not think about informing the heroes. There had been enough double agents in this entire colossal mess. She was not going to add to that.

But… those kids would go to a better place. Wally wouldn't be stuck in that lab, being experimented on and tortured for the rest of his probably short life. Cameron wouldn't sit silently through his dinner, shoulders slumped and food mostly untouched. They might actually have a chance at happiness, if not a good life. Jade could get them out of this soiled world. It was far too late for her, but these kids deserved it.

Who was she to think of herself at a time like this? She didn't even necessarily have to give herself away. It'd be difficult to get information to the heroes, but she could manage it. A comment here, a hint there. Heat of the battle stuff. If she could help…

No, she didn't dare. The Light would kill her. They would actually kill her. She wasn't willing to risk that. She didn't even really know these kids! She didn't owe them anything! Just because her life sucked, and she doesn't want there's too as well didn't mean anything. It was their own fault for getting pulled into this world.

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Artemis whispered in the back of her mind that it really wasn't their fault. Cameron was turned into a metahuman by his father's villain tools and then used by his father as another villain because of his abilities. Wally was turned into a metahuman by chance and immediately thrown into a world of meta experimentation because of that little chance. Their lives really weren't their choices. It wasn't their fault that they were thrown into this life head first. Honestly, they've done remarkably well for their situation.

Jade wanted to say that it was just Wally that had gotten to her. At least that was easier to admit to. Just one kid making her go kind of soft on him? That wasn't bad. But Cameron made her just as soft. She didn't know him as well, and her interactions were limited, but that didn't really mean much. She saw him every time she looked in a mirror. Dad trained him his entire life to become a villain? Same with her. Dad's work came home and hurt him? Same with her. Developed an eager need to impress someone with his skills? Same with her. At some point, he'd make his first kill if he hadn't already. He'd make his first kill and it'd tear him apart and then they'd force him to make his second kill before he was ready and then his third and then he'd be just like her, cold and bitter and broken and wrong and evil and irredeemable and…

Jade was out of her depth here. She couldn't do this on her own. The only problem was, she didn't have anyone to turn to. There was no way she could tell her father about this. Artemis was out of the question because the Light would kill Jade if she tried to contact a hero, especially with all the upheaval going on. She couldn't go to Wally and Cameron for so many reasons. They were younger than her; they couldn't take on her problems. They were part of the problem. Both of them were going to be watched so closely that they won't be able to breath without it being noted down somewhere.

After all that, what did she have left?

Expression slackening and eyes itching with tears, Jade thought of her mother. Would her mom be willing to see her? Would her mom be willing to help? Jade had watched her mom after she came back from prison. Apparently, becoming paralyzed was good for her mother. Her mom seemed happier, readier for life. She was finally moving on, getting out of the world that she had given herself to when she was younger.

Would she even want to see Jade? Or would she be disgusted by the monster that Jade had become? Chest heaving with the attempt to keep her tears in, Jade decided that she didn't care. She needed her mother like she'd never needed her before. Maybe now her mom could be there for her, could be there for the family.

Almost without thinking, Jade made the trip over to Gotham, leaving the car several streets away from her mother. Jade carefully picked her way across the rooftops of Gotham, moving towards her mother and sister's apartment.

Easily, Jade moved up the stairs, silent footsteps barely making an indent on the stairs. Subconsciously, she blended into the shadows, melding with the walls and making her presence practically undetectable.

She stopped in front of her mother's door, hand raised to knock. For a long moment, she stared at the door. She stared, and she thought, and she stared. Jade couldn't do this. She just… she couldn't do this. It was wrong. She couldn't put this on her mother. This was wrong. She needed to go back to the Light.

Turning around, Jade nearly jumped out of her skin. It was a testament to how out of sorts she was that her mother was able to get out of the elevator and come almost up to Jade without the assassin noticing. Trying to hide the fact that she had been startled, Jade attempted something close to a smile and said, "Hey Mom. Long time, no see?"

Quickly regaining her composure, her mom sent her a tight smile and rolled past Jade, "Yes, it has been a long time. Perhaps we could get reacquainted over a cup of tea?" Jade nodded wordlessly as her mom worked the key into the door and opened in. After rolling inside, her mom smiled in a much more relaxed manner, and asked, "Won't you come in, dear?" Jade was helpless to do anything but go into her mother's home.


	50. Good Dream

JJJJJJ

Jade's mother gave her a soft look that didn't quite cover the hard, coiled muscles that were prepared for anything, "Do you take milk and sugar in your tea?"

Jade swallowed down the thought that mothers should already know this, and instead said, "No, neither. I take it plain."

"So do I." Her mother commented idly, moving through the apartment easily, gathering the supplies she needed to make the tea. Jade wanted to go over and help her, but she wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't sure if she'd get in the way. For a long second, she hovered just out of reach of the closed door, unconsciously leaning towards the escape route. Her muscles were taught, ready. Jade's mother looked up after a moment. She saw where Jade was and something in her expression crumpled a little bit, pained and sad and concerned. She swallowed harshly before saying, "Please, sit down Jade. I'll be over in a moment."

Wordlessly, Jade complied. She shouldn't have come here. She'd been there for only moments and she was already hurting her mother. Jade left so she didn't have to hurt her family anymore. At least, not Artemis or her mother. Instantly, her mind threw her back to the image of Wally actually tripping over himself to get away from his father and she knew that she had needed to come here. There was no other viable option for her.

In her moment of thought, Jade's mother had rolled back over to where Jade was sitting. Carefully, Paula Crock moved the tray of tea supplies from her lap to the table. She busied herself with pouring some tea for each of them. Then, without anything else to do, she settled back in her wheelchair, cradling her cup in her hand and watching Jade over the rim. There was still something sad and pained in her eyes when she said, "Jade, please relax. You're home."

"This isn't my home." Jade immediately refuted. She hadn't even really meant to say that. It had just come out, a reflexive defensive mechanism.

Paula's hands tightened around her cup, but she didn't comment on that, instead going back to her original point, "At the very least, try to relax."

"I can't relax. I can't relax anywhere. I shouldn't have come here. They'll know I came to see you." Jade said, standing abruptly and preparing to move towards the door.

Before she even realized it, Jade's mother had moved around the table and grabbed Jade's hand, holding her where she was, "Jade. Sit down. If someone comes after you here, then I think that the two of us can handle them. And if you're going to get in trouble for seeing me, then you're already in trouble. Might as well get something out of it, yeah?"

Jade stood there, torn, before finally relenting. She silently slipped back onto the couch, pulling her legs up under her. Her mom didn't let go until Jade was settled down again, tea cup in her hand. Letting out a sigh – of relief? Of frustration? Jade couldn't tell, - Paula settled back into her own spot on the opposite side of the table, "You're looking well. You've grown up to be so beautiful. You have my hair."

Jade fiddled with the teacup handle, nervously twisting it around, "I got a lot of my looks from you. At least, that's what Sportsmaster says."

Paula's lips tightened, "You call your father Sportsmaster?"

Jade's eyes flickered up to her mother for a moment, "It'd be kind of strange if I started calling him Dad on a mission. Not a lot of people actually know about our relationship. Besides, he's worthless as a father and doesn't deserve the title." Jade spat the last sentence out bitterly, one hand clenching at her side.

"He was trying to protect you, you know?" Paula commented mildly, eyes soft and mouth hidden behind her cup.

"Well, he certainly went about it the wrong way. If he was trying to protect us, he wouldn't have put us through what he did! What was he even trying to protect us from? If he'd gotten a legitimate job, there wouldn't have even been enemies coming in and attacking us at night! If  _you'd_  gotten a legitimate job, there wouldn't have been people coming after us! You two made your own enemies and forced us to deal with them!" Jade said, voice controlled but passionate, barely resisting the urge to stand again.

Paula never outwardly reacted other than her eyes softening further and her fond smile finally peering out from over the rim of her cup, "Oh Jade, we lived in the wrong world. We made mistakes. We did everything parents could do wrong. We forced you to grow up too fast. But you're not here to talk about that. I have the strangest feeling that you won't be really ready to talk about that for a long time."

Angry tears burned the back of Jade's eyes. How dare her mother just sweep away her issues like that? How dare her mother be so right? Turning her head to the side, Jade muttered, "I shouldn't have come. It was stupid." She ignored how similar she was acting to Wally. This was what he always did when he got mulish or angry with the turn of a conversation.

Paula took another sip of her tea. She set the cup down, letting it clink gently against the saucer. She leaned forward, across the table. Jade looked up just in time for Paula to gently grab her chin, fingers momentarily splaying across Jade's face. The assassin sat frozen for a second, eyes wide and heart far too hopeful for the life she lived. Paula murmured gently, "Please, Jade. I know I've messed up far too many times to be able to ask anything from you, but please. Please trust me with this. Please let your mother help you. Even if it's only this one time, please let me be there for you. That's all I ask."

Tears welling in her eyes again, only kept in through pure force of will, Jade spoke. She told her mom of her life with the League of Assassins, how Ra's al Ghul had won her loyalty. She talked about the formation of the Light and how Jade was sucked into that world. She mentioned meeting Wally and manipulating him and finished with his most recent deal with the Light in order to save his and Cameron's lives.

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a long time. Jade was emotionally drained, feeling bare like she hadn't in an incredibly long time. She wasn't sure if she'd ever just sat with someone and spilled out all her worries before. She had never been able to trust her mother or father with this kind of thing and she was never willing to put all of that on her little sister's shoulders. Then, with the assassins, they weren't exactly close to each other. Being an assassin did not equal making close connections. Her mother was regarding her silently, expression deeply sorrowful and horribly understanding.

Finally, her mother spoke, "I went through what you're going through, once. It ended up with me giving up being a villain. Are you still willing to listen to my advice?"

Jade couldn't speak, so she nodded. She wouldn't give up being a villain just because of some advice. Paula looked at her carefully again before she finally began, "For a long time, I loved your father. He was someone like me, someone who was always there for me. We did things together. He gave me two beautiful children. He taught me new tricks in the field. We were  _unstoppable_. And then he let me take the fall for him. I was paralyzed and imprisoned because he let me go. It was a side of him that I'd never seen before, even though we were married for so long. I didn't know what to do with myself.

"Obviously, that's not exactly the same thing that you're going through with Ra's al Ghul, but it's similar. You were loyal to him, a trusted student, a trusted soldier. He gave you a purpose, if not a home. He was a force that was backing you for a long time. And then, he did something that you didn't understand. He supported this horrible plan that tore down the child who you considered to be so kind, so unsuited for something as dark as he was pulled into. You thought that he was genuinely interested in Wally, that maybe Wally could become a potential recruit for the League. And then they were experimenting him, getting him captured by the Team, tearing him down and bringing his father back just to torment him. You didn't know what to do with yourself.

"I had a long time to think about my decisions. I had six years to think about what I had done, what my decisions had meant for myself and the people around me. I mean, you two were just little girls. Instead of playing with dolls, you were dismantling bombs. Instead of cute little dresses, we had you outfitted for stealth outfits. I was so wrapped up in my love and in my ideal little world that I couldn't see what was surrounding me. And so many people suffered for that. I realized that your father had been changing for a while, but that I had blinded myself to it. I could see that he was getting more intense, more paranoid. I assume that was when he started with the Light. That's just based on my own feelings and assumptions, but I think it's true. I hurt your father by leading him on, by not addressing the changes I was ignoring.

"I hurt you by leaving you alone with your father and Artemis. I put the responsibility of an adult, of a  _parent_  on you when you were just a little girl yourself. Every day I thought of what I had put you through and I cried. I hurt Artemis by not even giving her a chance to experience what it would be like to grow up semi-normal. I mean, you never had a normal life, but for a while you at least weren't pushed as hard, wasn't trained as mercilessly. When I was pregnant with Artemis, Lawrence thought that I was going to need extra protection because I definitely couldn't fight as well. So, he trained you harder. Then, oh I don't know, I guess he got a taste for it? He thought he found his calling? I don't know. But he was stuck like that. You were pushed harder than ever. Artemis never got a chance to live a life of anything but being pushed like that.

"And when I realized that? When I came to those conclusions and realized that my naivety, my inability to see what was going on around me, my… my  _foolishness_  in trying to mold my children to be exactly like me? I stopped. That exact moment was when I stopped. I  _loved_  being a villain. If I could still do it, I would probably  _still_  love being a villain. That urge will never go away. I lived by my own rules for far too long to completely accept society's understood moral boundaries. But I gave it up anyways. Because the day I gave birth to you, and to Artemis – no, not the days I gave birth to you two. The day I saw you and loved you was the day I stopped living for just myself. The moment I started loving my children, the moment I took responsibility of the adorably little girls who were so beautiful and so strong willed, I gave my life to you two.

"For far too long, I neglected that. I ignored that responsibility I felt, the one that Fate placed on me in order to change my life. And everyone else suffered for that. I hate that it took until I was suffering as well for me to realize it, but I can't change something that already happened. I gave up the life that had torn my family apart in order to save my family and I will never regret that. I told Lawrence to leave and when Artemis decided to become a vigilante, I helped her get the supplies and I helped her train. When Batman and Green Arrow came here looking for her, I begged them to not turn her in. I knew that she was still a vigilante, so she was still technically breaking the law, but she was doing good. She was  _helping people_. And I convinced them to let her join the Team, to have Green Arrow take her on as his apprentice.

"I can't change what's already happened, but I can work until my fingers bleed to make sure that the rest of your lives are better. Those boys, Cameron and Wally, that girl Shimmer, all those other teens. Fate has placed them in your hands, as your responsibility. You can save them all and yourself at the same time. Go to the heroes and beg them to help." Paula finished before her lips snuck up into a smirk and she teased, "Or go to that vigilante boyfriend you've got."

Unexpectedly, Jade's cheeks heated, and she hissed, "I do not have a vigilante boyfriend!"

Paula raised a single eyebrow, "So, you didn't kiss that Red Arrow boy? Because I've heard that you did."

"That was one time!" Jade defended, cheeks heating further.

Paula laughed, "Oh, from that reaction, it most definitely was more than one time. When else did you kiss him? That's just too sweet. Talk about star-crossed lovers."

"We're not star-crossed lovers!" Jade defended hotly, "We're just… he doesn't even like me! He's… he's my mark! I'm one of his handlers. He's the double agent for the Light!"

Paula raised an eyebrow, "So, not so star-crossed then. You're on the same side?"

"No!" Jade huffed, "We are not on the same side. He needed a handler because he didn't know that he was the double agent."

Both eyebrows raised that time, and Paula smirked, "So… star-crossed lovers?"

Huffing much more emphatically, Jade practically pouted, "No! I only got close to him, so I could activate him."

"Ah." Paula said, nodding wisely.

Jade narrowed her eyes at her mother, "What are you 'ah'-ing for? That was not an 'ah' moment."

Paula shook her head, adopting an innocent expression, "Oh nothing, I was just saying 'ah' because I realized that you fell in love with your mark. The number one no-no for an assassin."

Jade opened her mouth to argue but realized that she couldn't find the words. She closed her mouth before opening it again, "Oh my god."

For a moment, mother and daughter stared at each other. Then Paula burst out laughing, "Oh, you should have seen your face. You were so shocked. Did you really not realize that you liked him that much?"

"What can I do about it, though? He's a  _hero_! I'm an assassin! Even if I change, there's no way he'd want me. I was the one who activated his code word to make him give up his friends. I did it so many times. He could never forgive me." Jade lamented. Briefly, she thought of how wrong this scene was. She was discussing a crush with her mother! How strange was that? This wasn't something that she did. It wasn't natural.

Something soft overtook her mother's features again and she took a hold of one of Jade's hands, "Jade, I don't think you understand how much trying means to a hero. Not all of them started out their careers so innocently. Not all of them used to be heroes. If you try to become someone for their sake, they'll accept it. It might not start out all that great, but it will get there. Jade, this is your opportunity, your time. If he's let you kiss him more than once, that says something. Go to him. Tell him everything you told me. Tell him how you feel. Help him save you."

"It's not that simple, Mom." Jade said, fists clenched and tears resolutely not falling.

"Ra's al Ghul took me in, trained me, trusted me. I can't betray him, betray the organization. I swore my  _life_  to the League of Assassins. I genuinely enjoy being an assassin even if it wasn't what I would have originally pictured for myself. What kind of person am I if I abandon the group that protected me, gave me a new life?" Jade argued, heart wanting what her mother suggested, but head telling her to stay with the Light.

"What kind of person would you be?" Paula repeated, eyes blazing, "You would be the exact same person who you were before? A strong,  _strong_  girl who does what's best for her. You are an independent woman who doesn't need a single person to stand on. All your accomplishments are yours alone. Be proud of that. Keep fighting for that. Stay strong. You enjoy being an assassin? Who said you had to give that up? I never said to change who you are for him. You can be an assassin who kills for good. I know this is  _not_  what I'm supposed to say as a parent, but it's the truth. You be who you want to be. I believe that as long as you do good, he'll accept it. And maybe, someday, you'll eventually change your mind."

There was another long silence after that declaration. Jade was the one who broke it, "I don't want to be responsible for those kids. I didn't ask for that."

"You don't always ask for it. Sometimes it finds you. And sometimes that sucks, but most of the time, it'll be worth it." Paula responded.

"Will it really? They're not my kids. They're going to disappear into the world if I get them free. I'll have given everything up for nothing. No return. No reward." Jade threw back.

"Won't freeing them, seeing them happy and not pulled into the Light be worth it? A reward in itself? Besides, that Wally will most likely go back to the Rogues. He might even end up working as a CI for Red Arrow again, and then you'll surely see him all the time." Paula ended with a wink that sent Jade to blushing again.

Shaking her head again, Jade ran her hands through her dark hair, "It's not that simple. A villain doesn't become a hero, or an anti-hero, or vigilante, or whatever in one night. It doesn't happen. None of this would work."

She would have gone on, but Paula grabbed her hands again, holding them tightly, "I became a civilian overnight. In one single night, I made the decision to stop being a villain. That part is the easy bit. The rest is what requires the strength. I hate that I can't do this for you. I hate that I can't really be there for you. But advice is one thing that I can give you.

Carefully, Jade extracted one hand and, after a moment of hesitation, settled it over her mother's hand, gripping her mother as hard as her mother was gripping her. Why had she avoided this for so long? Then again, how would she truly understand what she was missing when she had never experienced it before?

She opened her mouth to say something, but the rattling of the door startled her, stopped her from speaking. Jade whirled around to face the door, hand going to one of her many hidden weapons. She was halfway to a window before she remembered her mother, sitting defenseless in her wheelchair.

The door opened, and Artemis walked in.

All three women froze. Jade couldn't tell if she wanted to look at her mother or her sister. Artemis was staring at her in open shock. Paula was giving Jade a pleading look, begging her to stay.

Shaking her head, Jade finally let her tears fall. Within a second, she was hanging out the window, sending one last forlorn glance through the opening before she leapt off the edge, free-falling into the night.

She hadn't thought that Artemis would come home. She had thought that the Team was all still holed up in their Cave, searching for Wally. Then again, the blood puddle they'd left behind was rather gruesome. It would be understandable for the heroes to send their mini-heroes home for the night. They probably needed some comfort after that.

If the mini leaguers needed comfort after that, then where was the comfort for Cameron and Wally. The two had experienced it real time. Now, instead of comfort, they were going through more and more unimaginable pain.

How was that fair? Why could Artemis go home to her rehabilitated mother and neither Cameron or Wally had that option. The only family they had left was their fathers, and, honestly, they didn't really count. Wally's father was the one hurting him, and Cameron's father was not only in jail, but also treated his son horribly. It wasn't fair that they didn't get the same sorts of relief that the heroes got. It wasn't fair.

And it wouldn't be fair until Jade did something about it. They would never get out of this world on their own. Jade was certain that they were planning something, that they at least understood the level of danger that they had gotten themselves into. She knew that they were that smart at least, but they were limited in what they could do. In their positions, there was no room for error, for a slip up. They were being way too tightly watched to do anything but comply with the Light's wishes.

Jade wasn't under those same restrictions. No one would even expect anything otherwise. She was practically opposite to the two of them. She was sorely needed to get the plan back on track, but that was only a portion of her time. She needed to train Wally too, but she'd give him a day to… settle in. That wasn't the right word, but she wasn't sure that there was a right word for that. That meant that she practically had free reign. She could… she could…

Without her even realizing it, she was walking towards the main room of the Light compound. She hadn't even realized that she'd gotten to HQ. She'd made the entire drive there without realizing it. Nevertheless, she'd made a plan on her way back. She knew what she needed to do.

Carefully, she cut through the living quarters. Luckily, it wasn't too late, only about eight o'clock. She had a chance of catching the main members of the Light before they called light's out.

As she was stalking through the hallways, Jade noticed a solitary figure, standing silently in the middle of one of the side hallways. It only took her a moment to recognize the highly distinctive shock of white hair and pale, pale skin. Deciding that this was worth taking time from her mission, Jade went down the side hallway and called out, "Icicle Jr.?"

He didn't move, just stood there, "What?"

"What are you doing, Cameron?" Jade asked, coming to a stop next to him. He shrugged but didn't answer. She pursed her lips, "Go back to your room if you're just going to sit there."

"Maybe I don't want to go to my room! Maybe at least the whole building is a larger prison than just my room!" Cameron finally exploded.

Jade could see her breath in the suddenly chilled air. There was frost swirling over the floor. Cameron was practically flickering between ice and skin. Jade chose not to comment on any of that, preferring to not further upset the volatile teen, "A few rules never stopped you before. I mean, you are a villain."

Startled ice blue eyes flicked up to meet hers. She met them steadily for a moment before she turned and walked away. He could make of that what he would. She wasn't going to give him any more hints than she'd already given. Even as much as she'd said was too much in a place watched as closely as this.

Jade made it the rest of the way to the main meeting room without incident. She pressed the button that would summon all of the main members of the Light and waited patiently for them to assemble. She understood that it was hard for all of them to meet at the same time.

Finally, they were all there. Ra's al Ghul asked, "Cheshire. What did you summon us for?"

"I had an idea that I thought might be useful." Cheshire answered respectfully.

"Well? Spit it out! I was trying to sleep!" Klarion pouted.

Licking her lips slightly under her mask, Cheshire responded, "Of course. I thought that it might be prudent to see how far the League is in undoing the mole's programming. I could stage a regular fight with him, get him away from prying eyes, and attempt to activate his programming. There's a chance they haven't figured out how to completely clear him. We could use this to our advantage. If it fails, well, at least I would have gotten some exercise out of the experience."

The Light stared at her, uninterested and uncaring. Ra's al Ghul idly responded, "The idea has some merit. It could only help. If it does not help, then at least it does not harm the organization either. I say we forward it."

"Fine." Queen Bee yawned.

"I concur." Brain beeped.

"Yes, yes. Goodbye! Let me sleep this time!" Klarion hissed.

"Go ahead." Savage muttered, far too exhausted for how early in the evening it was.

"Whatever you want, al Ghul." Luthor sighed.

Ra's al Ghul nodded to Cheshire, giving her the go ahead and then motioning that she should hold until morning to act. She nodded respectfully to him and then waited until all of them turned off their video chats. It was disconcerting how little interest they held in that conversation. The interest that they watched Wally with was disgusting compared to the reaction they gave her.

Shaking her head, Jade swallowed down her apprehension and moved towards the one place she least wanted to be. Navigating through hallways that had long since become familiar, Jade moved towards the science labs. She found the room she'd manipulated Wally into entering the first time. She moved through that room, ignoring the guilty memories it brought up.

Easily, Jade slipped through the white hallways, being careful to keep track of where she was. It was easy to get lost in here. Personally, Jade thought that the reason it was so mazelike was to keep the prisoners from escaping. It didn't work with Wally the first time, but that was the only known escape of a test subject. Those were some impressive stats. She wondered what made it, so Wally could escape that one time. How could she recreate them?

Heart practically in her throat, but footsteps gentle and perfectly placed, Jade finally found the cellblock. Swallowing her nerves, she found the only occupied cell.

Huddled in the far corner of the practically barren cell was Wally, shivering in the dark. The door to the cell was thick and tightly shut, not a window in sight. The only place Jade had to look at Wally was through the one-way window. Wally would think that it was a small mirror placed above the sink next to the toilet. There was no bed, blanket, or pillow.

Wally already looked terrible. He had an inhibitor collar on, the material surrounded by scratch marks. His fingernails were practically torn to pieces. She had the most awful feeling that he'd been trying to get out of or away from something. In sleep, he was curled protectively in a fetal position, the only odd part out being the broken leg that extended slightly, unable to be pulled inwards without hurting him further. Strangely enough, though, he didn't look like he was in pain while he slept.

There were a lot of missions they'd run together where he'd fall asleep on the way home and he'd always looked stressed. There was always a divot between his eyebrows, a tenseness to his frame that hinted towards a lack of comfort. He never smiled in his sleep, never seemed to have good dreams.

Yet, somehow, something happened that allowed him to be having a good dream that night. He seemed happy for the first time in a long time, body still and relaxed, despite being curled up protectively. He didn't look any younger or more innocent, though. He still looked older than his years and world weary. It was a contrast and a contradiction, but then again, when was Wally anything but?

Heart still locked in her throat, creating a lump that she just couldn't swallow around, Jade put one hand to the small window. After a second, she took her hand off and walked away.


	51. A Hero

WWWWWW

Wally swallowed harshly against the inhibitor collar, feeling it scrape against his skin. It was tightened to the point of being flush against his skin. Apparently, the scientists remembered what he did last time he wore a collar around them. And, this time he didn't have the same supplies that he'd had when he'd been with the Team.

He immediately shoved his thoughts away from them, but flashes of a certain dark haired Gothamite remained rooted in his mind's eye. Giving up and allowing the memories to wash over him, Wally thought of all the time they'd had with each other. The two had gotten closer than Wally had ever been with anyone. Between the texts and the actual in person interactions they'd had over the course of their friendship and Wally's own personal admission of his crush, Robin was easily the closest friend Wally had. Ironic that Wally didn't even know who he was, wasn't it?

Resisting the urge to wearily scrub his face with a hand (all that would do would make the restraints cut into his wrists and get him hit by his father, who acted as his guard most of the time), Wally kept walking forward. He was far gone on Robin and he didn't even know the kid's real name. He didn't know Robin's eye color. He didn't know a thing about him, other than little superficial things. That was it. There was nothing important, nothing substantial. But Robin knew almost everything about him. He knew a good portion of Wally's past, a good portion of his present. He knew Wally's identity and his powers and his fighting style.

Still, Wally couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed. What did it even matter? It wasn't like anything was going to come from it. There was no way that Robin would ever be interested in Wally. Even if, by some miracle, Robin was interested in Wally, there was a very real chance that they were never going to see each other again. And, even if by some  _mind-blowing_  miracle, Robin was interested in Wally  _and_  Wally didn't die here in this horrid place, then there was no chance that Robin would be allowed to date a villain. That's just not how things worked. And Wally wasn't willing to change for Robin. He was  _made_ to be a villain. Sure, he wasn't as villainous as others, but he was still a villain, a criminal. He wasn't going to stop stealing, stop plotting. And there was no way that Robin would go for that. Any chance of a relationship between them was doomed.

Wally had to resist the urge to laugh hysterically. What was he  _doing_? He was being led through the science section of the Light's HQ, thinking about his crush. There were three guards around him – one of which was his  _father_  – and he had just finished a not-so-fun experiment and all he could bring himself to worry about was whether Robin liked him back or not.

Talk about epitome of teenage cliché. Totally obsessed with romance? Absolutely, if he was still thinking about it. He refused to acknowledge the fact that it was probably a defensive mechanism to prevent him from thinking too hard about his predicament. It wasn't a particularly good predicament to be in.

Finally, the quartet reached their destination. Wally was shoved into a tiny room. His only exit point was the door and that had two guards standing outside of it and his father standing inside of it. There was glass taking up one whole wall.

On the other side of the glass was Cameron.

Breathing out a sigh of relief at seeing Cameron unharmed, Wally plopped himself on the ground. He was way too tired to have this conversation standing the whole time and there weren't any chairs provided.

On the other side of the glass, Cameron gave him a bemused, strained smile before copying his movements. After a second of just staring at Wally, Cameron put a hand to the glass, staring at him intently. Eyes trained on Cameron's, Wally did the same. There was nothing romantic about the gesture like in the movies. It was purely familial. Cameron was more of a family member than the man standing behind Wally and he was okay with that. He drew strength from the frost that chilled the glass pane.

Cameron raised a pure white eyebrow, "You look like trash."

Wally snorted, "Oh yeah, because you're so much better." It was true. Cameron had the starts of deep bags under his eyes, his normally bluish pale skin grey instead. His typically spiky hair drooped pitifully. Wally snorted again, "I know you missed me, but yikes. It's been, like, a day."

Glaring half-heartedly, Cameron defended, "Hey, I've been looking like this since you were taken by the Team! You just didn't notice as well because you had lost a ton of blood."

Wally's expression soured, "Thanks for reminding me."

Cameron's expression turned vaguely amused, "No problem. How you holding up?"

Wally shrugged a shoulder, "Not bad. They're still on the early stages of experimenting, getting all of the tests that require me to be in relatively good health out of the way. I mean, they broke my leg earlier, but I think that was mainly so I don't run again. It sucks to run on a leg that's healed wrong, you know?"

Cameron gave him a droll stare, "I really don't know. You know what? I hate you when you're like this. Do you realize how annoying it is when you act like everything's okay when someone literally broke your leg and you're being forced to walk around on the healed wrong leg? Because it's really annoying. It makes me want to strangle you. Unfortunately, there's a glass between us. What did they think was going to happen if there wasn't a glass between us? Did they think I was going to smuggle you sweets and that was going to mess with the experiments or something?"

"Probably. They're very specific about my diet, you know." Wally answered in complete seriousness before he cracked and grinned at Cameron.

For a moment, Cameron just shook his head at the redhead, but then he started laughing, "Oh man, I don't even understand how you have friends. You're crazy."

Sobering slightly, but still retaining his smile, Wally scrunched his hand up on the glass before flattening it again, "Thanks, Cameron. Thank you for being here and doing this with me."

"Hey, it was sticking with you or death. You might be annoying, but you're at least better than death." Cameron smiled, the corners around his eyes crinkling. Nevertheless, Cameron moved his hand to repeat Wally's action from earlier. Wally swallowed the lump in his throat. This was the closest he was going to be to someone on his side for an indefinite amount of time. There would always be something separating them.

Maybe Cameron saw the despair creeping into Wally's eyes. Maybe he was just that good at reading the mood. Either way, Cameron suddenly smiled and put his other hand to the glass, "Watch this." The ice-themed villain stared intently at his hand, face smoothing out and lighting up from the inside. He obviously concentrated and, slowly, gently, shapes began to spiral out from the glass. The swirling frost patterns looked like ferns, mixing and mingling and swishing into a whole forest of frozen wonder.

Wally laughed delightedly, using his other hand to trace the cold patterns from his side of the glass. He was staring so intently at the patterns that he didn't realize that his father was looming behind him until it was too late. He couldn't quite help the small squeak that came out when his father grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, yanking him up painfully and throwing him towards the door.

It was like when Wally was leaving the main meeting room all over again. He wanted to glance behind him at Cameron to reassure both Cameron and himself, but Wally's father batted his head, forcing him to keep his eyes trained firmly in front of him. His chest tightened as he realized that he hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

Whatever. That was okay. He'd just do it better next time. He only had to wait a day or two to see Cameron again. He could last that long. It would be okay.

JJJJJJ

Jade crept through Star City. It made her skin crawl to purposefully make herself a target in order to draw Red Arrow's attention, but she had to put her assassin training to the side for the moment. This was more important than a mildly uncomfortable feeling.

It didn't take her long to make it to a place near Red Arrow's apartment. She briefly considered actually entering the apartment, but that wasn't the plan that she had suggested to Ra's al Ghul and he wouldn't be amused if she randomly decided to go off and do her own thing. Everyone's stress was running too high at the moment to make any mistakes. She was sure that they would instantly be seen as treason and she was not willing to risk that sort of confrontation.

So, instead of sneaking into the apartment and pleading her case there, Jade threw a Sai directly into the camera of a STAR labs. Easily, she used the walls to flip up towards the camera and retrieve her weapon, dismantling the security system as she went. For all that STAR labs was the leading researcher into alternate technologies and futuristic weapons, they were rather easily robbed. People seemed to come and go through them with little to no problems on a regular basis. It was rather sad, honestly.

Jade stalked through the hallways, glancing through the doors off to the side to check what they had before moving on. She was looking for something pretty. There wasn't actually any reason for her to attack the STAR labs specifically other than the fact that it would be stranger for her to attack any sort of lower profile building. She certainly wasn't going to go shouting from rooftops to get his attention. She was classier than that.

Luckily, it didn't take long for Red Arrow to get there. Still, every moment that she had spent in the nigh deserted lab had sent chills through her, reminding her of where Wally was at that very moment. She wondered idly if STAR labs had done anything like what was happening to Wally. It wouldn't surprise her, honestly. A lot of the evil scientists and engineers came out of STAR labs.

Her first sign that Red Arrow had arrived was the taser arrow that she narrowly dodged. She reached out and grabbed the arrow as it past, avoiding the glowing taser end. Easily, she snapped the projectile in half, letting it fall to the floor by her feet. Staring at the striking figure in red, Cheshire purred, "Just the man I've been looking for." It was practically ingrained in her to say, "But you seem to have a broken arrow."

He didn't go blank like he normally did when she said the phrase. Instead, he seemed to grow more animated, raging, "That won't work on me anymore! We've figured out your little trick. Your plan is over now. Ruined."

Cheshire laughed, cold and dark in the empty hallway, "Figured it out? You wouldn't have had a  _clue_  if Momentum hadn't told you!"

Something flashed through Red Arrow's expression and Cheshire remembered that he would have probably seen the pool of blood too. She swallowed the guilt and asked mockingly, "Cat got your tongue?"

The expression Red Arrow had passed, leaving only aggression behind, "What's your problem with Artemis?"

 _That_  was not how Cheshire expected this conversation to turn. She reacted as quickly as she could (still not quickly enough), "She's a hero. I'm a villain. It's rather simple, honestly."

"No. It's not." Red Arrow growled, "You two have something with each other. You two  _always_ end up fighting each other. Artemis purposefully misled the rest of the Team in order to face only you. What's your problem with Artemis?"

"If she hasn't told you, then you don't need to know. Why does it matter to you so much? Still upset that she replaced you on the Team? Took the spot you could have had if we hadn't programmed you to refuse a lowly position on the Team?" Cheshire taunted. She wasn't sure if she was being watched, but she didn't want to risk it. If the cameras in the building were compromised, then she would have to get him close enough to whisper something in his ear. To get that close, though, she needed to make him mad enough to fight her head on. Luckily, it wasn't all that hard to make him mad.

Predictably, his anger skyrocketed. Red Arrow readied another arrow and loosed it. Cheshire found herself desperately dodging the arrows, trying to get closer at the same time. At one point she had to get her Sais out and start deflecting. Red Arrow was definitely not one of those heroes who lost skills as they grew angrier.

She was actually starting to get tired when she literally leapt at Red Arrow. There was no time for grace with the speed he was outfitting and firing his arrows. He stumbled back at the sight of her flying at him but recovered enough to grab the arrow off the bow in one hand, switching his grip on the bow with the other. He used both as blunt object weapons to block her attack. Instead of allowing that to phase her, Cheshire twisted her body to the side slightly, grabbing the bow with one hand and using her Sai to cut through the arrow with her other hand. Utilizing her grip on the bow and the twist of her body, Cheshire pulled up on the bow and swung her legs at Red Arrow's now unprotected stomach.

He doubled over, grip slackening just the slightest. Cheshire pushed off with her feet from his stomach, ripped the bow out of his hand and flipping over. She briefly considered breaking the bow but figured that even she wasn't that cruel and instead threw it far behind her.

Immediately, Cheshire leapt back into the fight. She dashed between his legs, pulling one out from beneath him before he could get his breath back. She rolled the two of them until she was on top of him. She straddled his waist and pressed an arm to his throat before leaning down. Even though he couldn't see her face, she pushed down the blush that reacted from their intimate position. This wasn't the time.

Cheshire breathed into his ear, "This is important and regards the welfare of Wally, so you had better listen. Pretend to fight back, but don't actually dislodge me just yet. I need to talk to you about Wally, but it needs to be somewhere safe, somewhere the Light doesn't know about. I swear I'm not trying to trick you. I know you don't have reason to trust me, but please, for Wally's sake, give me a chance."

He continued to struggle under her, but she wasn't sure if that was him listening to her, or if he was just genuinely trying to get away. After a few more tense moments of struggling, he whispered back, "I presume you already know who I am?"

She winced slightly before answering, "Roy Harper."

Red Arrow seemed to almost deflate under her before sighing, "There's an ice cream place about two blocks north from here on the left. It's the only ice cream place on that strip, so it's obvious. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes. I'll be wearing sunglasses. You better not be in that getup when you get there."

Cheshire nodded against his collarbone, taking one more second to appreciate their proximity before she let him get the upper hand. At one point, she was forced to backflip off of him, kicking him in the chin as she did. He growled at her and rolled towards her position, reaching for her feet. Nimbly, she jumped out of the way and was gone, racing out through the corridors to freedom.

Fifteen minutes later found her slinking into the ice cream store, black hair slicked back and held captive beneath a dark baseball cap. She was wearing a white shirt and black jacket, black yoga pants and a scowl finishing the image.

Almost immediately, she spotted Roy. Surprisingly enough, there were five tables occupied despite the fact that it wasn't even six in the morning. This was a strange city with strange people. This was an ice cream shop and it had more business than the  _breakfast_  place across the street. There was a problem there.

Roy was scowling almost as deeply as her. Apparently, he had already ordered for her because there was a bowl filled with plain vanilla ice cream waiting across from her. He was eating some sort of chocolate monstrosity.

Gracefully, she settled down across from him, easily picking up her spoon and eating a chunk of the ice cream. It was, admittedly, quite good. Roy glanced at her for a moment before tilting his head back down to look at his ice cream, "What news do you have about Wally?"

Jade's jaw tightened, "Nothing good."

Roy seemed to slump completely in front of her, "And why could you not have told me in the STAR labs? Why did we have to go somewhere that the Light wouldn't know about? Why even tell me this?"

Letting her jaw relax, Jade sighed, propping her elbows up on the table and eating her ice cream with one hand, the other rubbing at her face tiredly, "I have little to no morals. I kill willingly and don't lose a bit of sleep over it. But what the Light is doing… even I can't stand by that."

"Just spit it out already! What's going on?" Roy growled, voice fierce and exhausted at the same time.

Jade licked her lips and then said all in one rush, "The Light knew that Wally had told the Team who the mole was and had even shown them the method used to activate the mole. Additionally, Cameron – Icicle Jr. – had made you change Wally's designation in the zeta beams, so you probably would have been discovered either way. So, the Light decided to kill both of them when they returned." She heard Roy take in a deep breath, but continued to talk over it, "Apparently, Wally and Cameron had already figured this out for themselves because they immediately had a counterproposal ready when the Light told them their fate. Wally said… he said that his powers started working before the Light wanted them to work and, in light of that, he would allow the Light to experiment on him to ascertain the cause as long as they kept Cameron alive and working on the mission."

Roy opened his mouth to say something, but Jade cut him off, "Additionally, one of the guards in the science labs is Wally's biological father. He is the one who is primarily in charge of watching Wally and I can already tell that Wally will find it difficult to go against the man. Wally is allowed to see Cameron once every other day and will complete training with me every day along with the experiments. I do not know the details of his experiment. I want to get him out, though. I did not sign up for  _that_. For what the Light are doing to those  _kids_. So, I will do what I need to do to help them."

When Jade glanced up at the man in front of her, she was greeted with a far more tender expression than she had been expecting. His eyes were hidden by those sunglasses, but his jaw wasn't so tense, and one side of his lips was tilted upwards just the slightest bit. There was a considering angle to his eyebrows. Roy asked, "What's your name?"

Startled, Jade's initial reaction was to smirk and say, "Cheshire."

Roy frowned, "I'm being serious. This is how this is going to work: you are going to do exactly as I say and give me as much information as I ask for. Otherwise, you won't be able to get them out. Is that understood?"

Jade's jaw clenched, but she nodded and answered, "Jade Nyugen."

He stared at her intently, expression never wavering. She felt unbearably naked in front of him. He said, "Where is the Light's headquarters?"

Her pause was longer that time, considering. Could she really do this? Could she really betray everything? Swallowing harshly, Jade said, "Not yet. Just… give me a moment." Surprisingly, he allowed her to take a moment. She used that to look at him under her lashes, peeking up at him carefully. He really was beautiful. Sighing, Jade took another bite of her ice cream. Her mom had said that all it took was one single night to completely flip sides. One single decision. Jade hadn't really fully made that decision, but she could. Here and now, she could decide to become a hero. Being a hero would mean that she would inevitably end up fighting against Wally and Cameron, who were almost guaranteed to stay villains. It meant that she would be significantly more likely to see her sister. It meant a lot of things that she wasn't sure she wanted. HHHdfkd

Wasn't there another way? She didn't need to stop being a villain to betray the Light. There were plenty of villains who had rebuked, betrayed the Light and remained villains. She could manage it too. But that would mean giving up any chance of a future with Roy, of a life where she could rely on her mother. There was a chance, though, that she would give herself to this side of the battle and it wouldn't work out. There was still a chance that the League and the Team wouldn't be enough to stop the Light, even with insider information. Was she willing to risk all of that?

Jade took another bite of her ice cream, looking down at the slowly melting delicacy as she did so. How would it feel to not have to lean to the side, face covered while she ate here? How would it feel to be able to reach across the table and entwine her fingers in Roy's fingers as they shared a bowl of ice cream? It would probably feel amazing. It would probably feel better than anything Jade had ever experienced.

She wasn't willing to change herself for him, though. She wasn't willing to change herself for anyone. Her life was hers and hers alone and she wasn't going to let anyone take that from her. She had to make this decision for  _her_ , not because she had a crush and a little girl's broken dreams.

Taking a deep breath, Jade moved her eyes up to meet Roy's again. She swallowed around her nerves and said, "Alright.  _This_  is how this is going to go. This isn't going to be you calling all the shots. We're working together on this. We'll make a plan first and  _then_  we'll talk about the details like where things are. I know you and you are way too impulsive for me to trust you with this. If there are any sorts of hits, I'll be there too. You aren't doing this without me."

Roy's mouth hung open for a moment before he shook his head and hissed, "Do you want the entire criminal community to stop trusting you? Because obviously working with a hero is a good way to do it."

"I don't really care what the criminal community thinks about me anymore." Jade answered haughtily.

Roy sighed, aggravated, and rubbed his face, " _What_  are you talking about? Just tell me what you mean."

Jade stared straight at him when she answered, "I'm going to become a hero."

The ruby archer actually choked on his ice cream, which Jade felt vaguely guilty for. Roy spluttered, "Are you serious? You're an assassin!"

Jade rolled her eyes, "Okay, so I might not  _strictly_  be a hero. I'll be an anti-hero or whatever that's called. I'll take out bad people and save good people and all that. I'm not going to stick with your stupid 'no-killing' rule because that's just a recipe for disaster, but I'll try to follow other rules once you teach them to me."

"Once  _I_  teach them to you? Since when was I teaching you anything?" Roy asked incredulously.

Jade raised an eyebrow, "People don't just become heroes overnight. I'll need a new suit if the public is going to trust me. I'll need a new name. My tactics will need a bit of a change so I'm not breaking too many laws. I'll need to learn how to interact with the media and how to just generally operate on the hero side. Someone has to teach me all that. I've chosen you. Isn't that, like, a rite of passage for heroes? Turning a villain into a hero? I feel like that's something that a lot of heroes have done."

Roy sighed and moodily ate a bit of his ice cream before sighing again, "We might as well order another round of ice cream. This conversation is going to take a lot longer than I expected it to." Jade responded by sending him a smug look. Her thoughts were still in turmoil, but she'd done it. She'd made the decision.

LLLLLL

Len moodily bit into his sandwich. When he'd dramatically left the Light and ended his contract with Robin, he hadn't really thought about how it would affect them in the long run. That was why he tried so hard to think things through slowly and act based only on logic and never passion. Now, the Rogues were floating high and dry. There was no information inflow. The Flash was way too busy dealing with whatever he was dealing with to do more than stop them and run off, not even giving the Rogues a chance to grill him about the situation.

They didn't get information from the good guys and they didn't get information from the bad guys and that meant that they just didn't have information, period. And that meant that everyone in the house was irritable and walking on eggshells simultaneously. It wasn't the sort of home situation that allowed for a productive career in stealing things. Additionally, it had been far too long since any of them had seen Wally, or even heard from him and that was getting to everyone as well.

The kid had really messed them up and now Len didn't know how he was going to fix it. He needed a way to get in on the action without threatening any member of his team. All he could be thankful for was that the kids were home from school for the holidays.

If everyone had to worry about school during a time like this, they would have gone actually crazy. The only downsides to the holidays coming around was that they were inching ever closer to the actual date of the Big Day.

It was Christmas Eve (it made Len  _ache_  inside to think about the fact that this was supposed to be their first Christmas with Wally, but instead he was with the Team or somewhere else or doing  _something_  not with the Rogues) which meant that the Big Day was only seven days away. New Years was the Big Day and Len didn't know what to do about it.

Sighing, Len scrubbed a hand over his face. He needed more information. He  _needed_  to get back into the thick of things. He wouldn't involve the rest of the Rogues beyond simple surveillance, but that should be enough. He would wait until Christmas was over, though.

The Rogues had intense Christmas traditions and he wasn't going to shirk them because he was worried about one of their members. All that would do would be tear the family even further apart. Sure, it would hurt to see the small pile of presents for Wally that would remain unopened until they got him back, but they would push through it. They were villains. They were good at pushing past the pain.


	52. Team Up

LLLLLL

Len stifled an annoyed sigh when the doorbell rang. He'd finally gotten the Rogues to fall in for lunch, sitting around the table and actually having a relatively civil conversation for the first time since Robin broke the deal. Now, someone was at the door and their concentration would be broken and there would be no going back to this familial mood again.

Deciding that he might as well go ahead and bite the bullet, Len pushed back his chair and muttered darkly, "I'll get it." He thought he saw Sam smirk off to the side, but he hid his mouth with his napkin too soon for Len to really be able to tell. He sent off a death glare regardless.

Carefully, Len made it through the war-zone that was a pre-Christmas living room. They decorated their tree on Christmas Eve and put all the presents out at the same time, so there were various odd shaped packages strewn across the room along with ornaments and tinsel. It was a mess that made Len want to sigh again, but he couldn't, not really. This was their tradition. This was what was helping to get them through this hard time and he really couldn't begrudge his family that.

Once he'd made it through the living room, Len opened the door, making sure he was wearing his least amused expression. What he saw when he opened the door, however, made that expression drop into something icier and more dangerous. He commented icily, "I don't remember giving either of you this address."

Red Arrow glanced slightly at Cheshire, but she just kept her mask facing towards Len, "I don't remember you telling the Light that we shouldn't try to find all of your addresses. What if we needed to get in contact with you?"

Len ignored the last comment, "The Rogues are done with the Light. We told you that."

"Are you serious?" Red Arrow cut in, expression vaguely murderous, "You left Wally there with those monsters because you, what? were offended by them one day? I thought you cared about him."

Len narrowed his eyes at Red Arrow before glancing behind him. Gently, he eased himself onto the porch and shut the door. He felt slightly silly standing there in the December air in pajama bottoms and a big shirt, no socks, but he couldn't bring himself to care all that much. This was his home and he'd do as he liked there. These two didn't have a single input into that. His voice was black ice when he questioned sharply, "Wally has been captured by the League's minis."

"He escaped." Cheshire responded, voice clipped and slightly mocking. Len wasn't sure if he'd ever heard her voice with anything but a mocking tone wrapped around it.

That didn't matter, though, because her words registered with him. Wally had escaped? And he hadn't come home? Did he really not want to come home to them? What had they done wrong? Why hadn't the Flash told them? What was going on? It broke his heart that Wally had escaped from the League only to go back to the Light. Len had hoped that some time with the Team might be enough to knock some sense into the teenaged speedster, but apparently not.

Len did his best to make sure that none of his confused, conflicting emotions crossed his face, but some of them must have registered because Cheshire's voice sounded out, slightly softer than before, but no less mocking, "He was trying to protect you. At least, that's what I'm assuming. I never actually asked him. The Light wanted to kill him. He knew that if he went back to you, the Light would kill you too for harboring him. He didn't want to put that on you, so he did his own thing. He's currently not to be killed and, from what I can tell, he's trying to think of something to make that situation permanent."

Len processed all of that, carefully storing it in his mind to be pulled apart later. Possibly also to yell at Wally about once they got him back. He didn't address it when he spoke, however, choosing to ask, "Since when are you two such good friends?"

"We're not." Red Arrow growled.

At the same time, Cheshire purred, "Probably since the first time I kissed him."

Red Arrow sent her a scandalized look, but, like before, she didn't even turn to face him, instead of keeping her mask trained on Len. Raising a mildly amused eyebrow, Len reworded his question, "Why are you working together on whatever this is?"

"We both care about Wally. We want him to go free." Red Arrow answered firmly. This time, Cheshire's mask did twitch towards him slightly, as if she were sending him an appraising look.

Len shot back emotionlessly, "And if he immediately goes back to being a villain after this?"

Red Arrow's fists clenched, but he still answered resolutely, "So what? That's his choice."

"Good." Len answered, nodding his head towards the archer, "And what, exactly, does all of this have to do with me?"

Like a flip of a switch, Red Arrow was angry again, "What does it have to do with you? He's your responsibility! He's a  _Rogue_! That makes this have to do with you!"

Len was unfazed, "Perhaps if I actually had an inkling of what was even going on, I would be able to ascertain that better for myself. Don't you think?"

Red Arrow wilted slightly under his glare, but Cheshire was made of sterner stuff and merely continued to keep her mask trained on him, back ramrod straight, "We need the Rogues to help us get the League to defeat the Light."

Len laughed, a harsh violent sound that made even Cheshire give the tiniest of starts, "You're going to have to find something else to use to win, then. The Rogues won't help. I know that Wally is one of us and he's hurting, and he needs our help, but I won't endanger all the rest of the Rogues for this fool's mission. The League can't beat the Light. Not with your help. Not with my help. Not with the Rogues. There is nothing the League can do. Now, if there's nothing else?"

"You're wrong!" Cheshire said, stepping forward and raising her voice for the first time in the entire confrontation. She repeated herself in a quieter voice, "You're wrong. The League can win this time. They're already partway to winning. Wally dealt the Light a mortal wound when he revealed who the mole was. Now that the Light can't use the mole – which was a vital part of their plot – they're having to resort to a plan B. It's not as polished as the original plan, but there's a good chance of it working. If we can get that information to the League without the Light noticing, then the League can win."

Len raised an eyebrow at the idea that Wally had 'dealt the Light a mortal wound.' He couldn't imagine the kid actually going against them in that big of a way. Revealing the mole? Who even was the mole in the end? Len supposed it didn't matter, but decided to ask anyways, "Who was the mole?"

Cheshire held herself rigid, a sign that she was going to lie, but Red Arrow spoke before she could, "Me."

Suddenly seeing the duo in front of him in a different light, Len stepped back towards the door slightly, "Ah, I see. Well, I don't entirely know what you're trying to figure out by telling my all of this, but that's about it for me. I've told you that we can't help you. Go try someone else."

Red Arrow's voice was frustrated and impatient, "Look, I'm not with the Light. They programmed me a while back. Whenever they said a certain phrase, they would 'activate' me. Wally activated me as a way to reveal me as the mole. Martian Manhunter erased any trace of the programming in my mind, though. I'm no longer the Light's puppet."

"None of us are." Cheshire asserted, "All of us left the controlling arms of the Light at some point. We can fight back against it. We just need your help."

Len raised an eyebrow, icicles glittering off the top of the window behind him, "And when did you leave the Light?"

"Officially? Not yet. Unofficially, this morning. I made the decision to flip sides. I'll be working with Red Arrow. We're starting this off by getting those teenagers out of the Light." Cheshire answered, just as easily and nonchalantly as Red Arrow had answered the question about who the mole was. What was happening with the world when so many people were denouncing their allegiances? Things were certainly different when Len had started into the world of crime.

"You're both rather willing to tell me these things. If I were you, I would have stayed rather quiet about them. You never know who could be listening." Len finally drawled, leaning against the front of the house as he spoke.

Cheshire snorted, "Please. We both know that you wouldn't let any spyware this close to your safehouse. We're telling you these things as a way to get you to trust us. This requires at least the most basic level of respect and communication for it to be pulled off correctly and that means that we need to inform you as much as possible given the situation. Are you in to help us or not?"

"I already told you," Len growled, "I'm not sending the Rogues into certain danger on the off chance that maybe the League might defeat the Light. Even if the League somehow defeats the Light, there's a good chance that one of my men would get hurt in the process, maybe even killed. That isn't something I can allow."

"Wally's being hurt right now!" Red Arrow shouted.

Len sighed, "Wally's not with us right now. I'll do everything I can to get him back, but I won't try to overtake the Light. They're a worldwide group that's been active for years. No one can touch that."

Cheshire's voice was laced with venom, knives aiming for kill spots on her victim, "So, you don't care that Wally's being experimented on and tortured with his biological father as a jailor? That's good to know. I'll be sure to relay that to him when I see him next."

Len's heart skipped a beat at the words, barely stopping himself from clenching his fists and growling low in his throat. One of his Rogues was going through that? Seriously? They were doing that to Wally? That made Len want to immediately start a mission to get his youngest from the Light, but that wasn't an option. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and acted unimpressed, "Was that a threat?"

"That was a promise." Cheshire answered back, just as emotionlessly and unimpressed. Red Arrow was glancing between the two, not quite sure where the conversation was going, nor how to bring it back into realms that he understood.

After a beat, Len repeated himself, "I won't endanger my team."

"Maybe you should have thought about how your team felt about that." Sam said coldly from behind them.

Digger shouted after him, "Bloody oath!"

Hartley was practically seething, "How cold  _are_ you? I knew you were incapable of human compassion, but this is extreme. He's being  _experimented on_!"

Mark was frowning, "We don't condone hurting children."

James was, briefly, serious, showing a rare and hard-won moment of clarity, "He's one of ours and he's hurt."

Mick didn't say anything, choosing instead to stare at Len with the single-minded focus that he usually reserved for burning things. It was, as always, disconcerting to be on the other side of that stare, but not overly so. It wasn't the first time that Len was under the scrutiny of that gaze and it wouldn't be his last. He and Mick had been through a lot together. There were three major challenges that they'd faced in their friendship; only three big ones that threatened to tear them apart.

The first was when the two of them had decided that living together was the easiest option. That way, there was a good chance that neither of them would have to worry about the house foreclosing on them while they were in prison; they'd have someone else hopefully on the outside to help pay the bills and help them escape.

It wasn't an easy transition, though. Len and Mick were opposites in almost every way. Heat and cold. Passionate and dispassionate. Mother-henning and tough love. They had worked out an acceptable partnership that resulted in rather lucrative jobs, but they clashed in completely different ways on the home front. There were multitudes of arguments, nights of getting recklessly drunk, threats to move out. Nothing they did meshed, and everything was falling apart, spiraling beneath them.

Eventually, they'd worked it out. It had taken each of them a talking to from Len's sister to really get the ball moving on recovering their friendship and finding a happy equilibrium.

The second was when Flash came into the picture. When the Flash was a newer figure, it was nearly impossible to beat him. Len and Mick didn't really understand the way his powers worked. They didn't know how to get around his actions. They weren't nearly fast enough. The only consolation they had was that Flash didn't understand his powers either. He wasn't anywhere near as proficient with his powers than as he was now.

Flash coming onto the scene had meant that the partnership was getting fewer and fewer jobs and the ones they managed to find weren't anywhere close to successful. There was a lot of stress and anger and frustration. Len and Mick had been forced to almost completely clean out their stores of cash.

Luckily, that time, they'd managed to hold it together until they'd found a way to drastically increase the power and abilities of their weapons. They'd also managed to stick together long enough to start to understand the weak points of Flash's powers, the things they could manipulate when going against him. It had been a hard ride to get there and there had been a lot of moments where Len had thought that the entire thing was going to fall apart, but they'd managed.

The third was when they created the Rogues. One of the hardest things about pulling together a group like the Rogues was the fact that every single member had issues. It was practically an unstated rule. That meant that everyone was defensive and had walls a mile high and didn't trust anybody for any reason.

That wasn't how Len and Mick worked. They might not always like each other, but they would always be best friends (as much as Len cringed at such a cliché term of endearment) and they would always have the history of years of fighting and living together. Together, they were a well-oiled machine. They balanced each other's weaknesses and they practically read each other's minds on the field. It was something that had been built on years of trial and error and hardships.

The creation of the Rogues was like trying to create that same thing with five more people and a time constraint of a month. It was impossible. Every single problem that Len and Mick had run into when originally working and living together was amplified with the addition of powers and issues with people's pasts and teenage angst. It was hard to stay optimistic about the monster they'd created.

Len and Mick were under the most pressure in that situation. They argued constantly about how to deal with each issue that arose (and there were plenty to argue about) and they fought every decision the other made. Then the Rogues had voted Len the leader and it'd gotten worse. Mick was always a man of stony silences, but normally he'd at least look at the person in order to communicate his desires. His version of the silent treatment is to not look a person. At all. Weeks passed with Len never seeing Mick's eyes. Len couldn't figure out what Mick's problem was. Mick had actually voted for Len for leader. He had chosen that. So, why was he so against the decision?

It had taken Len far too long to realize that Len's newly found leadership wasn't the problem. It was what Len was going to do with that leadership. Mick had been afraid that Len was going to leave him to the wayside in favor of working with and accommodating the new members of their family. He didn't realize that Len could never just forget about Mick or push him to the side.

Since the two of them had worked that out, they hadn't had a major problem since.

So, Len understood the looks Mick gave him. He had been through thick and thin with the other criminal and he wouldn't have it any other way. The look that Len was on the receiving end of now… Mick was serious about this.

Mick was as protective and coveting of his family as he was as fire. It was easier for him to hide his adoration of his family than it was for him to hide his love of fire, but Len knew how to read it. Every item he cooked, every bandage he applied, every soft look was his way of keeping together the family that he loved with every fiber in his being.

And now, one of Mick's family members was hurting and he saw a way to help them. He wanted to do anything, risk everything to stop someone he loved from hurting – the way he wished someone would have stopped him from hurting as a child.

Len closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Alright. We'll help you take down the Light. What do you need us to do?"


	53. Whatever It Takes

RRRRRR

Roy scowled at the sight in front of him. This felt a little bit like deceit. The League had just gotten over all of their issues and finally started working together with the Team and erasing all the lies and misunderstandings between them. And now? Here he was with the Rogues and Cheshire sitting in his favorite ice cream parlor at five in the afternoon. There was everything wrong with this picture. He was probably going to get caught. Someone was going to realize that he was here colluding with criminals. One of the guys at the bar is going to realize that the wacky teenager lapping at his ice cream bowl was actually Trickster from Central City and he'd call the police.

All of them would be arrested and it would be horrible.

Okay, that was probably overreacting, but still. He couldn't help but be worried. He'd never done something so out in the open with criminals before. The closest he'd gotten was bringing Wally to his warehouse, or meeting Cheshire in this ice cream shop just the other morning.

Man, everything was blurring together. It was rushing so fast and everything was coming together. The Light's plan was almost about to come to fruition and he was finally starting to get a plan together to defeat them. He was worried it wasn't going to work. He was worried that Wally wasn't going to get rescued. He was worried that everything was going to go wrong, and it was going to be horrible and everyone was going to die.

He must be more tired than he thought he was. He was starting to go crazy.

Sighing and putting his head in his hand, Roy said, "Alright, I'm going to need relative clarity with you guys. I don't know you. I don't trust you. I don't like you. But we need to work together if we want to take down the Light."

"I don't see how we can help. I don't see how she can help either. The Light's gotta notice that something's up with her by now." Mirror Master muttered.

Cheshire smirked, "I have a relatively large amount of freedom. I don't have to worry about being suspected. I'm too important to the program."

"Unlike Wally, apparently." Pied Piper scowled.

Roy sighed again, "Let's start with this: how about you guys give out first names, so we don't keep calling each other by our codenames. Someone is going to get suspicious soon enough."

"And I suppose we'll get to know your first name, too, huh?" Captain Cold asked sarcastically, expecting the answer he was going to get.

Closing his eyes and pinching his nose, Roy said, "No, you won't get my first name. You can call me Oliver."

Captain Cold gave him a suspicious look, expression tense and dark. It was terrifying how much emotion he could inspire while still be entirely emotionless himself. Whoever it was that said that Captain Cold's emotions were as frozen and bleak as the ice he loved was completely accurate. It was probably Flash that had said that. Then again, he rarely had something bad to say about his villains. It was probably Robin now that he thought about it. He was getting distracted again. He really was tired.

Eventually, Captain Cold nodded and announced, "Len."

The rest of the Rogues followed suit until the only one left was Cheshire. She was glancing anxiously at the people around her, obviously not comfortable with what was going on. She really didn't want to give her name to all those people. Cautiously, not sure what he was doing, Roy set a hand on her arm, nodding seriously at her. After a moment, she cracked, muttering, "Jade." The sullen note in her voice caused Hartley to snort.

Len shot him a sharp glare before turning back towards Roy and Jade, "I've asked this several times now and I don't like being ignored. What part will we play in this little game of yours?"

Roy gestured for Jade to talk. They had decided that she would do most of the convincing with villains and he would do the most talking with the heroes. It was just the easiest way to work it while still keeping them on equal standing like Jade had insisted. As Jade started explaining the plan, Roy let the explanation run over him, having already heard it and hashed it out with her.

It was actually… kind of nice working with Jade. Roy had one hundred percent intended on never taking on a sidekick or partner or whatever. It just wasn't something that he was interested in. He had experienced for himself what it was like to have a mentor/student relationship go bad. He had never wanted to put someone else in that same position. Somehow, he'd ended up being practically manhandled into it and he didn't mind.

The fact that she was a villain didn't even seem to register either. She didn't seem particularly villain-like when he worked with her. He'd told her that at some point and she'd just laughed at him. He hadn't understood what that meant. Whatever. Didn't matter.

All that mattered was that this plan work. There were too many people depending on it for this plan to not work. Honestly, Jade was probably the best person he could have asked for to make sure that this plan worked. Her knowledge of the enemy and her cunning were indispensable for the plan to be created and work.

Her dedication was admirable, too. She was as passionate as he was, as determined to get it done and get it done well. The one part of that he didn't like was that she was constantly pushing him. She didn't understand the meaning of a break. One needed a break to be able to continue working. If she kept them at the rate they'd been going the past two days, then there was no chance that they weren't going to burn out completely.

He thought that maybe there was something in her training as an assassin for the League of Shadows that led her to that non-stop pace. Then again, maybe it was just something about her. Roy hadn't really been able to find anything about her. It hadn't taken long to figure out that Jade Nyugen wasn't her real name. He'd looked and looked for that name, but it hadn't come out. He was looking for girls named Jade who had disappeared roughly around the time she'd started her assassin career, but there was little to nothing to go off of.

He didn't know how old she was now, nor how long she trained before starting her assassin career. Also, Roy was just assuming that she had kept her first name. She could have kept her last name and not her first. She could have kept neither. It was almost impossible to tell.

Hartley's vaguely annoyed and mocking voice broke Roy out of his thoughts, " _Oliver_ , want to pay attention a little bit? Or do you not care about your little criminal informant?"

 _That_  got Roy's attention. He growled, "I care more than you do. You're the ones who left him to the Light. You're the ones who let him run off in the first place."

Digger let out a guttural sound, "Who do ya think ya are? Comin' in here and accusing us and calling us the bad guys?"

James nodded eagerly, "Yeah! You called us the bad guys! We're the bad guys! Ten points!"

Len gave the brightly colored team a slightly disgusted look before rephrasing Digger's words, "You can't judge us for that. He's had a tough life. His natural reaction is to run when something happens. We're still trying to work on that. We were. We'll get back to working it out when we get him back. You can't say that you did any better. We aren't here to accuse each other. We're here to rescue Wally."

"And defeat the Light." Roy added cautiously, chastised, but not willing to show it. He would not show weakness in front of the  _Rogues_. They were basically heroes they were so bad at being evil. Well, not entirely. There were times when the Flash would get really stressed and say that his problem were the Rogues and the rest of the League would be confused because the Rogues? Really? But then Flash would continue to be legitimately stressed and Roy and Dick would always wonder what was happening and what the problem had been. They always wondered if there was actually a reason for Flash's stress. They always wondered if maybe the Rogues were darker than they'd seemed.

The dangerous, calculating look that Len shot him made him think that there was definitely something to the thought that the Rogues were more dangerous than they came off as. Roy tried not to make his nervous swallow too obvious. He could feel Jade laughing at him from his side. She gave him a look that said, 'let me do the talking.' He glared at her.

Eventually, Len shrugged, "Yeah. And defeat the Light."

Then Mark burst out, "Are you guys serious? You do realize that every single one of us is going to be arrested, right? It won't matter if we get Wally back if we're all in jail! And if we're in jail and Wally isn't rescued? Then it's all a waste of time."

Hartley scowled darkly, "Are  _we_  serious? Are  _you_  serious? I mean, are you heartless? We have to give him a chance!"

Mark gaped at the flute player, "When have we ever put the needs of a single member above the needs of the rest of the group?"

"We're not putting it above the rest of the group! It's not like we're sacrificing ourselves. We get arrested all the time. We have plans in place. It's fine." Hartley argued, voice increasing a little bit.

Mark's voice increased to match, "What plans do we have against the Justice League? They're the ones that took us last time and we were useless when it came to escape! Without Wally, there was no chance of us getting out! And there's a pretty good chance that they're not going to get Wally out anyways! This is all one huge risk and the odds are definitely  _not_  in our favor!"

Len's cold, even voice broke through their argument, "Shut up. We all agreed to help. We will do our part of the plan. Obviously, we won't have faith in the heroes, but we'll have faith in Wally. We taught him well. You can either do this with us or leave the Rogues."

Shocked eyes flitted to Len in unison, the rest of the Rogues openly gaping at their leader. Roy himself was kind of surprised by that. From what he'd heard, the Rogues hadn't really lost many of their original members. Only the fringe members who were a part of the team, but not The Team had ever been kicked out before. Hearing Len so casually threaten that fate on one of the main members was shocking.

Hartley's voice was small when he asked, "You wouldn't really kick him out, would you? That's not… I didn't want him to get kicked out…" He didn't sound like the internationally known Pied Piper who could stand toe to toe with a hero and win. He didn't sound like the sullen teenager who had come from a wealthy, famous family. Hartley sounded like a little kid who was seeing his first real family fight.

James's voice was just as pitiful when he said, "You can't do that to Mark. He's part of the family! And family shouldn't leave because it's sad when people just pick up and leave out of your life even though they were nice when no one else was and they were trying to help you and were really nice and were a better family than your real one. Family shouldn't  _do_  that." Mark clenched his fists and hunched his shoulders, jaw set.

Roy stared at the Rogue children in surprise. He understood that villains were real people and had real problems. He really did. It was just that understanding and seeing were two completely different things. It was hard to picture the Rogues making dinner or fighting over the TV set. It was hard to picture them being a normal family and doing normal family things, but he knew that they did. They invited the Flash to join them sometimes, so unless the Flash had been lying this whole time, they definitely did normal family things.

But that normal family stuff extended to emotions too. There was always a fear of abandonment. They didn't want any of the other Rogues to go away. They fought with each other and screamed and argued, but they really cared about each other and never wanted to go a day without them. It was… different, to see this. It was different to see villains as real human beings with real human problems, especially one that Roy related to. His own dad was gone. Brave Bow was gone. All he had left was Ollie. They didn't get along most of the time and fought more than they just regularly talked, but they were still family. Roy couldn't stand to completely cut his adopted dad out of his life.

And there was Hartley and James with the same problem. Roy was willing to bet that Wally shared that problem too. It was heartwarming to see and gave Roy a sense of connectivity.

Apparently, though, Captain Cold did not have a heart because he just emotionlessly repeated, "Mark can either do this or he can leave the Rogues."

Sam shook his head, "When we joined the Rogues, we decided together that it had to be a vote between us to kick a member out. We needed a majority. That was one of the rules that you couldn't take over, either."

Len raised an eyebrow at him, "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you wanted someone who would abandon you as soon as rescuing you was too much effort on your team. I certainly don't. I want to know that my family and I have someone to rely on." He said the last sentence looking at Mark. The Weather Wizard was pointedly looking the other way. Sam's jaw tensed, but he didn't say anything.

Digger finally joined in, "C'mon mates. There's no need to be so hostile about this. We all care about the ankle biter. Mark's just trying to take care of the rest of us too. There's nothin' wrong with that. 'Sides, he never said he wasn't gonna do it. He only said he didn't like it, right Mark?" The threat was obvious in Digger's voice, telling Mark to agree or else.

There was tense silence for a moment before Mark slumped, "Look, guys. I really am just trying to protect the only family I've got left. Seriously, I don't want to cause any problems. I just… this is a suicide mission for every single person involved. There's a reason that the kid ran back to the Light instead of coming to us when he got out of the Team's HQ. He knows as much as I do that no one's going to be able to take down the Light. I know he went back to the Light so he wouldn't endanger us. Isn't that just like him to do? He sacrificed himself for us. And now we're looking at getting ourselves arrested and then assassinated by the Light as soon as this plan inevitably fails."

Another tense silence reigned before Len pinched his nose, keeping his eyes closed as he talked, "I understand what you're trying to say. What I don't understand is why  _you've_  taken the pessimistic approach. For as long as you've been a part of this team, you were always the one telling the us that yes, we could manage kids, and yes, this heist was going to be easy. You said that you lost something important when your brother died, and you had finally found it again with us and that you were willing to fight to keep that. You're proud of your powers and our powers and you have always believed that we can achieve a lot with our abilities. What changed?"

Mark slumped further, practically leaning his forehead against the table at this point, ice cream forgotten, "The world changed, Len." He muttered into the table, sounding as defeated and tired as anyone Roy had ever heard. He continued after a beat of silence, "The world has always sucked. If it didn't suck, I wouldn't have become a villain. And, I mean, every one of us have had a sucky life. But hearing about the kids' lives was worse. I wasn't a villain until I was well into adulthood! I'm pretty sure the only one of us adults who was a villain before adulthood was Len and that's extenuating circumstances there. This world sucks and it just keeps getting suckier and suckier by the day. These kids are drawn into this horrible life just because the world sucks and it's not fair. Watching how wary Wally was, how easy it was to spook him into running, hearing about what's happened to him, what's happening now? When I know that stuff like that goes on in this world and kids get hurt by it, I lose the ability to think optimistically."

Although he knew that this was a private family conversation between the Rogues and he knew that Cheshire was the better choice for talking to them, Roy spoke up anyways, "Then change it."

The group turned to look at him, most of them seeming as if they'd forgotten that he was even there. Cheshire put a hand on his leg under the table to reassure him. He looked at her and she smiled back. Nodding slightly to Jade, Roy continued, "What you just described? A lot of that is how heroes start. Our lives suck. We learn how to deal with it, or we get powers or whatever. Then we realize that a lot of people's lives suck. We realize that the world in general really kind of sucks. And then we go do something about it because we can. I'm not saying that you should go be heroes, I'm saying that what we're trying to do right now? Our plan to take down the Light? That's our way of making the world a little less sucky."

Mark was already shaking his head, "You don't get it. There is one thing in this world that doesn't suck, and that's my family. I won't give that up to make the world a little better for everyone else. They certainly wouldn't do the same for me."

Roy privately thought that maybe that would be different if he'd have chosen a better life path, but then he mentally reprimanded himself. He didn't know what these people had been through. He never would know. Roy returned, "Like I said, taking down the Light is the  _hero_  way of making the world a little less sucky. I know that isn't your main goal. I understand that. Your main goal is to make the world a little less sucky for your family, like you said. But doesn't Wally count as your family?"

Mark ran angry hands through his hair, "I don't trust easily. That's understandable, given my chosen profession. I love the kid like he's my nephew or something, but I don't trust him. He's too likely to run out on us. He's impressionable enough that he's going to get himself killed someday in some idiotic need for belonging. He's split enough on his loyalties that he's worked for the heroes, us – who are in the middle of the spectrum, - and people as bad as the Light. His morals are all over the table. There are triggers within his triggers. He can probably be quite dangerous when he's angry, not just because of his speedster abilities, but also because he's smart and a little bit broken. It took me a year or two to trust anyone on this team and they were a whole lot less likely to leave for some reason or another. He's part of the family, but he's not trusted. I hate being that person who says it, but it's the truth. I trust the Rogues. I won't give them up for someone who I can't guarantee won't run again as soon as we turn our backs – especially after all the extra trauma he just went through."

Roy nodded, trying to formulate a response. He understood Mark's thought process – protect what you already have rather than risk everything for something you might get. Eventually, he responded, "Don't you think that maybe Wally will be worth it once you start to trust him?"

Mark stared at him with large eyes, confused and angry and unsure and frustrated at himself for feeling all of those things. After a moment, he sighed and said, "Yeah. Yeah, he probably would be."

Tentatively, Hartley asked, "Does that mean you're on board?"

Len interrupted before Mark could answer, "Of course it does. He's been on board this entire time. He's not completely heartless." Len and Mark made brief eye contact. Roy couldn't pretend to understand half the words they said with their stares, but he knew that they had reached an agreement that was mutually beneficial. He could tell that Mark had a new layer of respect for Len. Then again, so did Roy. It was obvious that the only reason Len had threatened Mark was to lead him to this conclusion. It was kind of terrifying how easily Len had predicted and manipulated the conversation.

"So," Jade began, pulling the conversation back on track, "Now that we all know the main points and proposed timing of the plan, let's get the details down."

CCCCCC

For a moment, Cameron stood just outside the door that would lead him to see his friend. As much as he hated to think it, Cameron didn't like going in there. Seeing his friend and knowing that Wally was still alive, and kicking was always great, but seeing the condition Wally was in wasn't great.

Each time Cameron went, Wally's condition got worse and worse. The last time Cameron went was, evidently, the time that the scientists had moved onto to the 'rougher' tests. Wally hadn't smiled once that entire session. It broke Cameron's heart.

In addition to all of that, there was the fact that Cheshire had gone missing. The entirety of the Light was in an uproar. People were scrambling in every direction. All of the grunts who were high enough up in the food chain to understand what it would mean for Cheshire to go missing were freaking out, trying to jump ship at this late moment. What that all meant for Cameron was that he was watched even more closely than before. Anyone who tried to approach him for either tips to getting out of the locked down compound or offers to have him join the people trying to get out of the locked down compound promptly disappeared for a couple of hours and then refused to talk to him.

It was infuriating. It was terrifying.

But it didn't change anything really. Cameron still had to live this life and he still had to go in there and see Wally beaten to a pulp and stick thin with dark circles hanging under his eyes. He still had to be strong for both of them even if they both knew that neither of them was actually being strong, but instead just putting up a façade of it.

Shaking his head, Cameron stepped inside. Wally was already there, leaning sideways against the glass. There was a thin smear of blood on the glass where Wally must have shifted.

Sitting down carefully, Cameron reached out and set his hand against the glass, keeping it there. If Wally was strong enough, he'd lift his hand to meet it. Not even bothering to hide the emotions in his voice, Cameron exhaustedly said, "Cheshire's still missing. Found out that she was last seen leaving to see if Red Arrow was still able to be activated. After that, it was radio silence. The Light are freaking out and splitting down the middle. A couple of them are insisting that Cheshire hasn't betrayed them and instead needs to be rescued from whatever trap she found herself in. The rest are saying that she's definitely left for the other side and will need to be terminated." Cameron paused before tilting his head and asking, "Wait, have you ever seen the movie Terminator?"

Tiredly, Wally shifted his head from side to side, carefully sliding his hand up the glass. About halfway to Cameron's hand, Wally's stopped moving. After a second, Cameron moved his down to match Wally's. After another second of silence, Wally rasped something. It was too quiet and distorted for Cameron to understand. Wally cleared his throat, gasping at the pain and the effort it took before licking his lips (only succeeding in breaking open one of the scabs there), and saying, "Busy… bein' active… 'n stuff…No TV… Theaters… food too much… money…" It looked like every word physically pained him. They must have done something to his throat in his last session.

Cameron shook his head and said, "That's not an excuse, man. Who would rather go run a few laps around the world instead of watching TV?"

Wally answered before he could go on, "Speeds'rs…"

Cameron made a shushing sound and adopted an offended expression before saying, "Hush, I was ranting. One cannot successfully rant while being interrupted." Inwardly, though, he was trying to figure out a way to make sure that Wally wouldn't speak and aggravate his throat, and this seemed to be the best way. Wally nodded tiredly, and Cameron continued, throat tight, "I mean, seriously man. Who said anything about owning a TV or wasting money on theaters? Two options there: break into someone's house and watch TV or break into the movie theaters and watch TV there. Neither of those are going to be high profile enough to have anything close to good security. My entire childhood was filled with sneaking into movie theaters."

Wally huffed a little. Cameron took that to mean that Wally was attempting to laugh, so he kept talking, "Also, like, why would you buy theater food? Just bring your own food. You know what? That's the best part about bringing a lady to the dance: they can carry food in their purses. It's a little sketch if a guy brings in a satchel, or a man purse or whatever. I'm pretty sure the employees know what's going on there, but with a chick's purse? No problem. Food issue solved. If you sneak in with a girl with a purse, then you're basically golden. Kudos if the girl buys the food."

Cameron opened his mouth to say more, but then Wally's father was there, right behind him. West lugged Wally up by the back of his patient scrubs and practically threw him towards the door. One of Wally's legs buckled under him, sending him crashing to the ground.

On his side of the glass, Cameron pounded on it, feeling useless. West didn't ask if Wally was okay, just lifted him back up and shoved him forward. Wally made a pitiful, pained whimper, but kept walking, limping along as fast as he could with the inhibitor collar and the multitude of injuries he had.

It was another session where Cameron hadn't been able to say goodbye.

Dejectedly, Cameron stumbled out of the door. He paused just inside doorway. There was someone waiting for him, expression expectant. Cameron's shoulder's slumped, his eyes closed, and he whispered, "I'll do whatever it takes."


	54. The Plan

BBBBBB

To say Barry was surprised that Icicle Jr. was having a legitimate tantrum in downtown Central City would be an understatement. As far as he'd known, the kid had been running through the countryside working to track down Plastic Man. Then again, he was probably with whoever was with Wally when… when they removed the tracker. He had probably returned to the Light.

Then why was he having a tantrum in Central? This wasn't even his usual city! And where were the Rogues? They said that if they could find Icicle Jr., they'd watch over him and try to pull him into their fold. Instead, he was right there in Central and they weren't doing a thing about it. It was weird. Suspicious. Were they somewhere else? Did they have news on Wally?

Barry shook his head. He didn't need to deal with that now. What was important at the moment was getting Icicle Jr. to stop destroying the city. That was not something that he needed to deal with at the moment.

Speeding in, Barry called out in a friendly voice, "Icicle Jr.! My man! What's up? How you been? I heard you've been living it up recently, moving up in the criminal world with a new ring." He stopped a couple yards away from Icicle Jr., smiling uncertainly at the teen. In one word, Barry would have to say that Icicle Jr. looked  _wrecked_. There were dark blue bags under his eyes. His white hair was disheveled and there were small chunks out of his ice on his arms. He was breathing heavily, and his hands were shaking.

Icicle Jr. put his hands down before raising them in an 'I'm innocent' gesture. Slowly, the ice melted away from his skin, leaving a bright blue-eyed albino in his wake. He looked even worse with the ice gone and his skin was accented by small bruises and cuts. He swallowed harshly and said quietly, "Not really living it up. Life kinda sucks right now, actually. Maybe it's 'cause I left the Light."

The concerned smile slipped from Barry's face. He took a few steps closer and, when Icicle Jr. didn't react except to curl in on himself slightly, he went even closer. Barry stood next to Icicle Jr. and asked carefully, "I think this conversation would be better somewhere else. Can I bring you somewhere?"

Icicle Jr. licked his lips, hands still shaking above his shoulders where he still kept them in that innocent gesture. Eventually, he nodded. Carefully, slowly, Barry gathered Icicle Jr. into his arms (and how had he missed how thin the kid was?) and sped off.

Eventually, he reached a clear parking lot that was outside the city limits and didn't seem to be attached to anything. He set Icicle Jr. down and took a few careful steps away. Icicle Jr. self-consciously grabbed one of his arms with his other and looked at Barry, "I messed up. I couldn't… I couldn't handle what they were doing to him anymore and I left even though we had a plan, but one of their guys caught me while I was running, and I had to… I had to… he didn't make it through the battle with me and then I couldn't think of anywhere to go, but I remember him telling me that the Team was nice to him when he was there, that it wasn't actually that bad with you guys. I can't go back to Belle Reeve. My father's still there and he'll be furious to hear that I've left, and I can't handle that. I can't! And so, I had to do this, and I had to come to you and I  _hate_  giving myself up. I hate giving myself to the heroes. This is  _wrong_ , but I couldn't stay there anymore."

Even with Barry's superfast cognitive abilities, he almost couldn't process what the kid was saying. He took a moment to listen before shaking his head and asking, "Wait, what who is doing to who? What were the Light doing and to who that made it so you had to leave?"

Running his hands through his hair in agitation, Icicle Jr. started pacing around the small overgrown parking lot, "To Wally! What they were doing to Wally!"

Barry shook his head more frantically, "Wait, wait, wait, what? What's happening to Wally?"

Icicle Jr. looked at him with his big sad eyes, "You don't know? No one told you?"

"Who would have told me? I lost my mole when Plastic Man gave himself up and the Team lost their mole too. We have literally no information. What's happening to Wally?" Barry demanded, rougher than he normally would have with someone who was so obviously stressed and in pain. He couldn't help it, though. His nephew was in trouble. Then again, since he realized the kid was his nephew (and even before that), when was he ever not in trouble?

Icicle Jr. stopped pacing, now nervously rubbing his hands together. After a second, he let out a slow breath and said, "They're experimenting on him, Flash. They're… it's awful. They let me see him every once in a while, but he just gets worse and worse every time. Practically on the first day they broke his leg to discourage the idea of making a run for it. It's… he's my best friend. And I left him. I left him in that  _place_  with those  _monsters_  who only live to hurt him and… and one of the guards is Wally's  _father_. And I just  _left_   _him there_!" Icicle Jr. took a few short, panting breaths as Barry tried to comprehend what was going on. There was no way that was happening. Not to his fellow speedster. Not to his family. After a beat, Icicle Jr. whispered brokenly, "I just couldn't stand to sit there and watch it happen anymore. I had to get out and get help or  _something_. That wasn't our plan. We were going to take down the Light from the inside, but neither of us were in the position to do it. It just wasn't going to pan out. So, I came here without telling him. I'm going to rescue him my own way."

Barry nervously ran a hand over the crown of his head, taking in a few deep breaths. This was so wrong. So, so wrong. Did the Rogues know about this? They'd be on a warpath if they'd heard. This was a colossal mess. Still, they now had someone on their side who was willing to leave the Light and go to them for help. That was something at least. From what their intel said, Icicle Jr. had been with the Light for a relatively long time, so he likely had a lot of information. That just made their job a thousand times easier.

On the one hand, Barry felt bad about using a kid who was so obviously freaked out and traumatized, but he didn't really feel like he had any other choice. Besides, the kid had come to him first. It wasn't all him. The kid was trying to help. Barry would accept that. He would use the kid and then he'd get him to the Rogues for a good home where, maybe, he can go down at least a little better of a path than he'd been headed when his only adult guidance had been his villainous father and the Light. Neither of those were particularly good influences. Then again, the Rogues weren't really good influences either, but at the very least, they were better influences than any of the ones the kid already had.

Barry was about to open his mouth to respond to everything Icicle Jr. had said, but just at that moment his comm went off. Sighing, Barry gestured that Icicle Jr. should wait and then sped off a little ways away, putting a hand to his ear and saying, "Flash here! What's up? Kinda busy."

" _Get un-busy_." Batman growled before immediately continuing, " _Red Arrow has a plan for taking down the Light. It includes villains, though, so we want all hands on deck for this talk._ "

Flash raised an eyebrow, "You know what Bats? I've got myself a little anti-Light villain myself. Amazing how we're going this alone for so long and then all of a sudden the helpful villains come out of the woodworks at the same time."

Batman sighed, " _Just get to the coordinates I've sent you. It's a clearing we're meeting at_." Batman promptly disconnected the call. Barry grinned to himself. He could always count on annoying Bats as a way to cheer him up at least a little.

Barry rushed back over to Icicle Jr. and said, "Hey, so the League is having a little pow-wow with some other villains who are apparently going to help us take down the Light. Wanna come along?"

"I don't know if that's safe. I just fled the Light. I'm not sure I'm really in the mood to interact with villains at the moment, you know? Who knows if they're loyal to the Light or not?" Icicle Jr. said, eyes trained on the floor.

Barry made a soft sound and put a hand on Icicle Jr.'s shoulder, "Hey, kid. The rest of the League will be there to protect you. I think it would be helpful if you came to this."

The silence stretched longer than Barry thought it would, Icicle Jr. searching his cowl like there was something deeply important he could find the answer to written there. Then the ice-themed villain looked away and whispered, "Yeah, okay."

Barry took a split nanosecond to look over the teenaged villain, shoulders slumping sadly at the pitiful picture the teenager presented. Deciding that there really wasn't much he could do about it at that very moment, Barry swept Icicle Jr. into a bridal style hold and sped off, leaving the city in his dust behind him.

Icicle Jr. yelped when he was finally let down (gently, thank you very much). He stood frozen (haha, get it? Frozen? Because he's Icicle Jr.?) for a moment before spinning around and vomiting into the bush. He mumbled into the ground, "So glad that Wally never actually took me for a run. He'd have laughed at me for puking."

Barry beamed, "Yeah, it's kind of bizarre for speedsters to think that running like that would upset some people's stomachs. It certainly doesn't bother us any."

A mildly amused voice drawled from behind them, "Well, it's definitely a lot worse for us."

Barry spun around, "Cold?"

Len smirked at him, "Who else would it be? Getting a little slow in the head over there, Flasher?"

"I thought you were done with us. No more information, all that jazz." Barry accused, narrowing his eyes beneath the mask. He saw that the rest of the Rogues, the big League members, the Team, and – weirdly enough – Cheshire were all standing in the clearing, anxiously rooted to wherever they stood.

Len rolled his shoulders carefully, "We received… compelling information that changed our minds." He purposely talked slower than usual, just to annoy Barry. The speedster huffed out a breath in annoyance.

Barry grew serious a moment later, guessing, "You heard what's happening to Wally?"

Roy's head whipped around to face him from the other side of the field, "How do you know what's going on?"

Robin asked accusatorily, "Wait!  _What's_  going on?"

Barry stepped slightly to the side and gestured beside him, answering Roy's question, "Someone told me."

Cheshire's voice rung in the clearing, something lowly panicked in her voice, "Icicle Jr.! What are you doing here? Why aren't you with the Light? And you've told  _heroes_ about what was going on?"

"Oh, come on!" Icicle Jr. started bitterly, "Like you're not doing the same thing! You can't tell me that you haven't cut and run, leaving Wally and I behind. Then again, we had counted on not being able to trust you." Cheshire momentarily flinched back, the motion minute, but easy to view from people who understand that being able to read people might mean the difference between life and death someday. That verbal blow must have really hurt to make her so obviously react.

Cheshire swallowed harshly and said, "I've been putting together my own plan to take the Light down. I couldn't get them from the inside and I wasn't going to drag you with me. You have to understand that I thought you wouldn't betray the Light."

"Why?" Icicle Jr. demanded, taking a step forward, voice rough and hands shaking, "Because if I leave they'll take it out on Wally? You think I wouldn't betray the Light because betrayal in their eyes means that I'm on an instant kill list? Here's the thing, Cheshire! I was  _already_  on an instant kill list! The  _second_  I made Red Arrow reprogram the zeta beam, I was on the kill list. I made a mistake the costed the Light their precious plan! There's no coming back from that! The  _second_  they think they've broken Wally down enough that he won't even  _notice_  that I'm not visiting any more, I'm dead meat! Gone! Kaputz! And there's honestly not much else they can do to Wally that they aren't already doing! You haven't been seeing him! You haven't been watching him fade in front of you! The first day he had a broken leg! The next time I saw him, he was beat to a pulp, cuts on every available piece of skin! He's practically skin and bones by now! What can they do to him that they haven't already done, Cheshire?"

The expressions of the heroes were drawn and pale. The Team especially appeared as if someone had just individually stabbed each and every one of them. It was obvious that they hadn't had a clue about what was going on with Wally. Even if they had, hearing that someone had been experimented on and hearing the details of that were two different things. The emotion that Icicle Jr. was displaying was probably also quite the shock for the gathered heroes. With the things that villains did, it was sometimes hard to equate them with humans sometimes. It was hard to picture them outside the suit, beyond a jail cell. It was hard to picture these people who were so evil sometimes as regular people who had regular lives and regular feelings.

It was especially difficult to realize that it was often easy to relate to villains. Heroes and villains really weren't all the different. Oftentimes, they had similar origin stories and they could have similar powers. A lot of them thought that the world was pretty messed up as is. They just had different moral compasses. That single thing was the difference between them and, a lot of the time, heroes had a hard time coming to terms with that.

And here was a teenage villain who they had fought against before, who had been proven to do some pretty evil things. He definitely wasn't a good guy by any standards. But he was raised by a villain. He had a bad childhood. He came by his powers not of his own will. He had an independent streak. He had a best friend. He was lonely and scared and hurting and just wanted an adult to come and help him. He wasn't all that different from any member of the Team.

Shaking slightly, Cheshire moved closer to Icicle Jr. For a moment, the two of them stared at each other, something complicated passing between them. Then, a second later, the two of them were hugging, Icicle Jr.'s tall, lanky form tucked into Cheshire's arm, his head under her chin, her arms wrapped securely around his back. Barry was pretty sure he saw Artemis turning away from the sight in the background.

It was an emotional scene. Barry was fairly certain that neither of them were crying, but there was a lot of charged sadness and heartbreak anyways. He hated that this was happening. He hated that kids were going through this all the time. He wanted to be able to help all of them, to make sure that no one suffered this fate, but even he wasn't that fast. Barry didn't think he'd ever be that fast, even if he wanted to.

The Rogues broke the moment, James sobbing loudly, "Group hug!"

He promptly glomped the two hugging before one of the rest of the Rogues could grab him. Len pinched his nose and Sam face palmed while Mick calmly went to pick James up by the scruff of his neck, dragging him over to the spot the Rogues had claimed as their own. Hartley sighed loudly and said, "Sorry about that. The doctors put him on a new medicine and it's having the weird side effect of randomly making him extra emotional."

"Put him back on his usual stuff, then. That was pretty good, right? Kept him relatively mild." Barry suggested.

Sam sighed, smiling softly at James, "This new stuff is doing one better. Instead of just keeping him dampened, there have actually been a few more moments of clarity than usual. We'll take a few emotional moments for that." Barry smiled softly as the Rogues ruffled James's hair, Digger quietly telling him jokes to get him to stop crying.

M'gann asked curiously, "Medicine? Is Trickster sick?"

Mark answered carefully, "He's got a… mental disease. Trickster just gets… confused sometimes. He has a little bit of trouble distinguishing between real things and things only he can see. And that's made it a little hard for him to… interact with people regularly. Especially since it went untreated so long with his mother being the way she was. He's fine, though. The kid's tough and he'll keep fighting this. I  _know_  we're getting somewhere." He ruffled James's hair, sending him a gentle smile that had just the tiniest weariness and sadness tucked in the corners, just out of James's sight.

Barry could see the Team completely reevaluating their idea of villains. Everywhere they looked recently, they were running into the idea that villains weren't entirely what they thought they were. Barry wasn't happy that they were finding out these realities in such a harsh way, but at the same time, he was glad that they were figuring this out early in their crime-fighting careers. It was an important lesson to learn.

Batman shattered the moment, growling, "Get to the point. Why are we all here?"

It was Roy who answered, "Cheshire and I are working together to bring down the Light. We devised a plan together. It makes use of the Rogues. We've already got them in on it. We just need you guys to help now. Hopefully this will all be done by New Year's Day. The plan is to take our action on New Year's Eve which is in two days. That was, originally, the date that the Light was going to make their move, but now they've lost me, so they can't fulfill their original plan. As far as Cheshire knows, there is no counter-plan."

Icicle Jr.'s head whipped up, "Seriously? They're letting all the members know that they've got something in the works, that they'll still complete the mission on New Year's Eve. Are you saying they're lying to us? Nevermind, that's a stupid question. Of course, they're lying. You should have seen how people tried to jump ship when Cheshire disappeared. When she ran off, the rest of the members knew that it really was hopeless. They were just trying to keep their following." His voice ended bitter, hands clenching.

Barry caught Cheshire turn her masked face towards Icicle Jr., keeping her face aimed in his direction for a long moment before turning to look back at Roy. The ruby archer waited until Cheshire looked back to him before talking, casting her a curious glance as he did so, "Anyways, the plan needs all of you to be in certain spots. There will be three groups, each of them assigned different roles. The Rogues, Flash, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow are in one group. Cheshire, the Team, Black Canary, and myself are in another group. The rest of you are in the third group. Icicle Jr. can go with the third group. We can't really add you into the plan this late in the game, so we'll put you with the group that's doing the least. Besides, you look like a strong wind would blow you over. You need to be resting. Everyone got that? We'll be giving each of you your individual assignments now."

Barry watched as the groups split up. He was filled with strong pride as he watched Roy take lead, Cheshire at his side, an immovable force that for some reason decided to dedicate herself to the archer. It was amazing to watch villains and heroes working together with such flawless ease, weaving together in a plan that was definitely going to work. With all of them finally working together, there was no way this could go wrong.

AAAAAA

Robin was seated at the table in the Cave, head in his hands and elbows up on the countertop when Artemis came into the room, asking, "What do you think of the plan? Do you really think it has a chance of working?"

"It has to." Robin answered simply. Artemis knew that if she could see past his mask, she'd find a haunted expression over his countenance. After a moment, he continued, "I don't understand how people can do that. I've seen things like it time and time again, but…  _how_?"

He didn't need to elucidate for Artemis to know that he was talking about what Wally was going through. The idea of it made her sick to her stomach. Taking a seat next to him at the counter, Artemis said carefully, "You know, Cheshire isn't any better. She kills, and she enjoys it."

Robin lifted his head, tilting it in that birdlike way that meant that he was curious, "Didn't you hear? She's going to become an anti-hero or whatever. Yeah, she'll still be killing, but she'll be doing it for good now. That's not mindlessly…  _torturing_  someone just because."

Artemis clenched her hands under the table. Ever since she'd come home to see her sister drinking tea with their mom, she hadn't known what to think. Her mom hadn't been entirely clear, only saying that Jade was about to make some good decisions and that Jade hadn't threatened or hurt Paula once over the course of the conversation. It hadn't made Artemis feel any better. She didn't want to think of her sister coming back to talk with their mom, but then immediately leaving when Artemis came home. So Jade could face their mother, but not her? Was it because Jade had hurt her during fights? Was it because Artemis was actively a hero while their mother was just a civilian? What made Artemis worth less when she had been with Jade through their childhood together?

And then the next thing she knew, Jade was suddenly joining the good side. She was doing a 180 and devising a plan to defeat the Light. That wasn't like her. Jade was a villain to the bone and she always would be. There was nothing to change that. Artemis didn't believe in something as wonderful as that happening. The universe hated Artemis, so there was no way that Jade would finally rejoin their family.

Heatedly, Artemis argued, "So, one good decision erases  _years_  of assassinations and horrible deeds?"

Sighing loudly and scrubbing at his face, Robin snapped, "Look, I don't have the mental capacity to deal with this tonight. I know she's your sister. I know Sportsmaster is your father. I know your mother used to be Huntress. What do you have about second chances, huh? You were always on Wally's case when he was here, too. What is it with you that you don't think other people can have second chances, can come back from being a villain? You get to do it, but they don't? Is that it?"

"Of course it's not!" Artemis shouted back, shocked that Robin knew what he knew, shocked that he was attacking her like this, still raw over her sister, "I was never a villain! I did what I had to do to survive my father! That was all! I never mentally made that shift! And guess what? I'm not wrong! Cheshire is still going to kill! She won't stop even though she's a  _hero_! Wally certainly didn't stop being a villain! He ran right back to the people who had used and abused him!"

Artemis didn't even see him move. From one moment to the next, Robin was in the chair, leaning against the counter and then he was pressed up against Artemis, trapping her against the wall with his bo staff pressed tightly into her throat, deceptively strong hand holding her own in his grip. He hissed, "Shut up! Don't say that about him! If you actually took the time to  _find the facts_  instead of just  _thoughtlessly accusing people_  like you  _always_  do, then maybe you'd have listened to what Icicle Jr. said! The Light knew that he had convinced Red Arrow to help Wally escape at the cost of the mole's identity and the Light was ready to kill him. Imagine how they felt about Wally when he literally told us who the mole was, flat out. I talked to Cheshire and she said that the reason that Wally went back was because he knew that he'd get whoever he was hiding with killed if he tried to escape from the Light. Instead, he figured out a reason for them to keep both him  _and_  Icicle Jr. alive and had a plan in place to bring the Light down from the inside!"

Just as suddenly as he'd initiated the hold, Robin stepped back, retracting the bo staff and quickly hiding it…  _somewhere_  on his person. She was staring straight at him and couldn't entirely figure out where he'd put it. Shaking slightly, Robin ran a gloved hand through his hair, murmuring softly, "Sorry… sorry… I'm sorry."

Expression softening even as she remembered the terrifyingly single-minded focus and force that obviously made Robin into a force almost as feared as Batman in Gotham's streets at night, Artemis scrubbed a hand over her own face, "Hey, it's okay. We both got carried away and said things we shouldn't have. Let's just call it even." She was momentarily painfully reminded that Robin was the youngest on the Team, that he was a full two years younger than her.

Robin sat back at the counter, burying his face in his arms and letting out a muffled, "I think you'd like Wally if you really got the chance to get to know him, though. He's got a super sarcastic sense of humor. He really is incredibly smart, even if he doesn't seem like it a lot of the time. He's a little broken and a lot jaded, but who can blame him? He just needs people to give him a little bit of a break. While he was with the Rogues and we were just contacting each other over text, you could really see an improvement. The entire time we were texting, he would just open up more and more. It was easy to see that he would get happier each time he texted me. He was honestly happy with the Rogues. It was probably one of the first times he'd been really happy. Then the Light took it away. They manipulated him and capitalized on the fact that his trust is nearly impossible to earn after the life he's lived. It's just not fair. I wish you guys had met him somewhere out on the streets, in our civvies, when he was with the Rogues."

Artemis watched Robin, something shifting painfully in her heart. The hero was in love with the villain. It was the cliché star-crossed love that Artemis had seen in countless teen books and sappy romances. At least he was in love with a villain who wasn't all that bad. Wally was a lot of things, but a hardcore villain wasn't one of them. The speedster wouldn't kill, wouldn't deal drugs, wouldn't deal people. He kept to the Rogue moral code even when he joined the Light.

As far as falling in love with villains went, Wally was probably one of the better ones. Normally. As it was now, though, Wally was probably the worst one Robin could have fallen in love with. The Gothamite had to sit on the sidelines, stuck in his world as the one he cared for was being experimented on and tortured and deprived of basic needs. He couldn't do a thing. It had to be killing him inside. There really was no action he could take besides waiting and preparing for the rescue plan in two days time.

Artemis wondered if Robin had realized how he felt. She wondered if Wally felt the same. She wondered how the story would work out. Even if they did, by some miracle, stop the Light and get Wally back, there was a good chance that he was going to be messed up. From the hints that had been dropped during the planning period earlier in the day, Artemis had the feeling that this wasn't Wally's first rodeo with human experimentation, but that didn't make it any easier. Honestly, there was a good chance that it would make things worse for Wally. He would have to live with the idea that he was dragged back into it when he had thought that he was done with it. He would never feel safe again. There would always be a fear that no matter what he did, he'd end up in that same situation.

Wally would be broken, and Robin would have to sit on the sidelines and watch. There wasn't anything he could do about that either. Sure, he could be there for Wally and be a support mechanism, but that wouldn't fix the problem. It would be hard. Any sort of relationship would be an uphill battle. And, knowing Robin, the moment he thought that a relationship would worsen Wally's recovery, he'd nix the idea, letting himself suffer so, in his mind, Wally wouldn't have to.

After a moment of hesitation, not knowing how she'd be received, Artemis reached over and pulled Robin into a hug. He stiffened for a moment. Then he melted into the hug, clinging onto her, but not crying. They held each other for a long time.


	55. A Fight

LLLLLL

Len took a deep breath, mentally going over the plan one more time.

Carefully, he ran a critical eye over his team. They were all suited up, an array of bright colors and strange mixtures that clashed and smarted on the eye. None of the suits had been designed with the purpose of melding in with a team, of bringing a sense of completeness and put-togetherness of a group of villains united under one cause. And yet, the idea was still conveyed. It was almost as if the clashing colors  _made_  the suits fit together. Then again, that was how the people of the group were, so why not their suits as well?

When he deemed that the group was ready – muscles tensed under their suits, expressions dark and foreboding, a literal charge in the air as Weather Wizard got excited, - Len made the signal to move out.

They had one specific goal, one specific action that they needed to take in order to complete their part of the plan. The job itself was rather easy. It wasn't something they hadn't done before even if they didn't do it all that often. The hardest part would be dragging it out. The longer they managed to do this, the better it would be for the rest of the plan. Luckily, the other portions of group one knew that this needed to be prolonged as well. With all of them working to make this last longer, there was a good chance that this could make it for a good long while.

When the Rogues finally made it to their destination, Len raised a hand, signaling them to stop. Silently, he slipped his earbuds in, the rest of the Rogues following suit. The next portion of their plan would be acted out through orders given only in hand motions. They couldn't risk being able to hear.

Len made another hand signal and Hartley and James moved to the front of the group. James knelt down to make swift work of the lock while Hartley held his flute to his lips, ready to start playing the moment the door was open.

After the lock was picked, James moved back, and Digger took his place, expression hard and a boomerang in each hand. With another signal from Len, Digger kicked down the door and the rest of the Rogues ducked in case anyone was ready with guns to fire. Unfortunately, it seemed like there were men with guns ready to fire as a spray of bullets shot through the doors and into the air where the Rogues had been moments before. Hartley immediately started playing notes, body swaying with the tune even though his eyes were locked onto his prey. Digger was using his boomerangs as best he could to deflect or distract the bullets that were still being aimed into the doorway.

The immediate onslaught of bullets was their warning that they needed to get working  _fast_. The louder the guards were, the faster the Flash would be called and the less time they'd have to drag out the main event.

Flashing another hand signal, the rest of the Rogues started making their way forward, eyes warily tracing the hallway around them, settling on doors and glaring at alcoves.

Luckily (for them, at least), they encountered no further resistance in the hallway. It seemed as if guards had all come running towards the front room when it had smashed open, bullets spiraling through the room in concussive blasts. However, Len knew that there was going to be another group of men waiting for them when they rounded the next turn. They were smart enough to not send  _everyone_ immediately to their dooms, after all.

He signaled a stop and waited patiently while his team collected themselves again. They switched formation, sending the heavy fighters to the front of the group, leaving the fringe fighters back where they could fight safely. When he was satisfied with their positions, he nodded and signaled them onwards. They crept slowly towards the corner before, almost in tandem, bursting around the corner, guns firing and boomerangs flying and a wicked wind flinging itself around the room.

The guards in the room made surprised yelps. The soft sounds of conversation from within the room the guards were guarding stopped, startled gasps and sharp whispers filling the silence that had fallen. James activated his boots and walked above the confrontation, casually pulling a snot gun out of… somewhere and shooting it at the wall. People below him yelped and scattered as caustic drops of acid dripped to the ground. After a moment, he floated peacefully through the opening he'd made. Len noticed idly that Sam had already disappeared into the other room through some reflective surface or another.

You would have thought that Central City would have known better than to put reflective materials in important places by this point. It was their own fault, honestly.

After Digger, Mark, and Hartley incapacitated the rest of the guards, Len gestured magnanimously at the door in front of them, raising an eyebrow at Mick. The pyromaniac rolled his eyes, but then allowed them to light up, the fire he shot from his gun reflecting his passion. The door in front of them crumbled to smoking ashes. Len carefully shot the pile of ashes with his ice gun. It wouldn't do to burn the place down while they were taking it over. That would just be embarrassing.

Len walked into a room positively stuffed with tension and fear. It was cloying and thick in the air, furiously terrified expressions painted thickly on some men's faces, only dusted lightly on others. Smirking at the reaction this ragtag group could incite, Len made his way to the podium at the front of the room. Sam had set up some mirror doubles that were watching one side of the room, and the other side of the room knew better than to mess with James when he had a snot gun in his hands and a vaguely spaced-out expression on his face.

Taking his place at the podium, back straight, but waist bowed slightly to lean crooked against the podium, Len obnoxiously tapped the microphone. The inevitable high-pitched squeal made a lot of the people wince; Len wasn't affected because of the earplugs he casually took out afterwards, feigning brushing his hair back, smirk kept firmly in place. He felt a little bad when he spotted Hartley cringing and unobtrusively fiddling with his hearing aids in the background.

Once he'd ascertained that he had their attention, Len allowed his smirk to transform into something significantly more villainous, a mix between a sneer and mad excitement, sharp curls of his lips and the tiniest flash of teeth. He slowly drawled through the microphone, "Well, what have we here? A bunch of fancy moneybags chilling in City Hall. That's a slippery slope right there. What were you talking about? Is there a problem in Central that I didn't know about? Come on, we're all friends here. You can tell me. Don't give me the cold shoulder!"

He ignored the groans of his own teammates and smirked, calculating, "Hm, I guess my puns cut no ice with you. How about this then?" Abruptly, his voice flash froze to something sharper, an endless wasteland of ice and desolation in his voice, "The Rogues are taking over Central City. You will give all access to us and arrange a press conference to announce our take over within an hour. Understood?"

The way every single bigwig in the city gulped and started shaking did nothing but amuse Len. This was going to be more fun than he'd thought.

BBBBBB

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Barry muttered to himself. His finger was tapping rapid fire against his leg, the entire hand blurring out with the speed. Ollie was eyeing it warily, but he knew better than to try and physically stop it. That would only end up injuring him and they really didn't need that at this critical point in their plan. It was  _finally_  time for the Light's takedown and the Rogues were taking forever to do their part.

How long did it even take to prepare to take over a city? It couldn't be that complicated. Besides, they were faking it, so they wouldn't even have to actually set stuff up! It should  _not_  be taking this long. The delay was making Barry feel nervous and shaky. His nephew was somewhere being  _tortured_  and he was sitting in his living room with his best friends, sipping his wife's hot chocolate.

Abruptly, Barry stood, starting to pace. Hal sighed loudly from his seat, "Sit down, Barry."

Hearing the kind concern and serious undertone in Hal's words, Barry did as he said, finger going back to tapping his thigh. Hal sighed again but didn't reprimand him. Hal and Ollie shifted around to sit on either side of Barry on the couch. Ollie slung his arm around Barry and started talking, "Look, Barry, we get that you're stressed. You just need to sit back and relax a little bit. These are your villains. Do you really think they'll let you down?"

Barry's shoulders slumped, "No, of course not." After a second, he added bitterly, "They've got more stake in this than I do, after all."

Ollie frowned, taking a moment to set down his drink before turning back to Barry, "No one has a bigger stake in this whole thing than anyone else. Everyone is doing this for different reasons and everyone is equally motivated to make sure it goes off without a hitch. Just because they did some weird pseudo adoption thing with your nephew doesn't mean that they care about him more than you do. Trust me, I know what's it's like to have a strained relationship with a kid."

Ollie and Barry shared a bittersweet smile. Barry rolled his shoulders a little bit, trying to shift a little bit of the tension out, "I get all that. I really do. It's just… I think about the first time we really interacted since he lived with me and… He had just run from the Rogues. He didn't have a single person in the world there for him. And he still  _snarled_  at me and said that he didn't want anything to do with me. Then I think about everything he's been through and… you know what Roy and Cheshire said about his past. There were those four missing years, right? Two spent being  _experimented on_ and the other two spent running from city to city completely on his own. He was  _thirteen_  when he was forced out onto the streets and that just broke my heart. The amount of times he ran from the Rogues, just up and leaving without telling them because he didn't trust them enough to go to them…"

Hal shrugged one shoulder, "He still seems like he turned out alright, regardless and that's all you really need to worry about. I mean, I'm making these assumptions based solely on what you've said about him because we didn't have the best interaction. Don't get me wrong: I'm impressed and will continuously be confused as to where he got that boxing glove, but still."

Ollie nodded sagely, "It was honestly one of the funniest things I'd ever seen when he attacked Arthur with the rubber chicken. It was truly impressive. It's a shame you two were incapacitated and didn't get to see that. I can honestly say it was one of the more unique ways I've been taken down."

Thinking back to every confrontation with James he'd ever had, Barry shivered and lamented, "Not me. I've had  _much_  more…  _unique_  take downs."

His friends laughed at him. Still, he didn't mind (much). He felt better than he had when they'd started talking. That was why they were his best friends. They knew when to start talking and when to stop. They knew exactly what to say. They could get him out of his depressive funks faster than anyone he knew. Which was a good thing because a speedster in a depressive funk was never a good thing. Barry knew that too many bitter moments and bouts of depression would turn him into someone like Zoom or Reverse Flash and no one needed more evil speedsters. There seemed to be too many already.

Then again, Wally didn't really count as evil. That just left Zoom, Reverse Flash, Baroness Blitzkrieg, Godspeed, Rival, Savitar, Black Flash, Cobalt Blue… On second thought, there were definitely too many evil speedsters already. For some reason, there were a lot more male speedsters than female speedsters, too. Barry wondered why that was. It wasn't like there was something physiologically different about men and women in accordance with the Speed Force. Well, that he knew about. Who really knew, honestly? There were too many speedster mysteries. He'd just chock the lack of diversity up to another speedster mystery. That was good enough for him.

Ollie and Hal had done a good enough job distracting him that he almost didn't notice the call to action.

Hal had to physically slap his arm to get him to realize that his communicator was beeping with Iris's message that City Hall had been taken over by the Rogues. In hindsight, he probably should have told her about the plan. He'd been too stressed and then she'd been off to work, bundling him up with a hug and mug of hot chocolate before he'd even really gotten a word in. Eh, he'd tell her later. It was all good.

Shaking his head, Barry scooped Oliver up princess style (partially because it was the easiest way to carry him and partially because he knew that it annoyed Oliver to no end) and zips out of the house, towards City Hall. He didn't bother offering to carry Hal too. He could definitely carry both of them at the same time, but it'd definitely slow him down a bit and it'd get a little awkward. Besides, Hal could fly relatively fast and he didn't need to dodge around buildings like Barry did. He'd have no problem getting there at roughly the same time as Barry and Oliver.

Like Barry predicted, the three of them touched down at roughly the same time, Hal only a minute or so behind them. Together, they gazed out at the scene set before them.

There was a veritable army of cops surrounding City Hall. Police cars and people were jumbled in an unorganized looking but probably strategic mess around the base of the stairs. Shaking reporters were standing with microphones pointed outwards all across the stairs. Each step was saturated with the terrified reporters, microphones emitting little spurts of feedback as the owners' hands shook. Only Iris stood strong, all the way at the front of the herd of reporters, shoulders thrown back and expression blank. Only Barry could read the slight fear and worry in her eyes. It was moments like this that he wished that the Rogues knew who he was. He was certain that they'd lay off Iris if they knew she was Barry's wife.

Speaking of the Rogues, they were mostly all sat at a table that stretched across the top of the stairs. Heatwave was pointing his heat gun at the important members of Central City's society, occasionally letting off bursts of fire just to hear their frightened exclamations. They were currently trapped in one of Trickster's booby traps, expressions tense with fear, but trying to stay calm for the cameras.

Barry whistled lowly, "I'm kind of impressed that they managed to take over City Hall this efficiently. Like, I know I was complaining about how long it was taking, but they actually didn't take that long at all."

Oliver gave him a strange look, "Don't compliment your villain's villainous skills. That's encouraging them and that's bad."

Barry raised an eyebrow at him, " _I'm_  getting this speech and your kid's not?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Oliver asked, narrowing his eyes at the speedster.

Hal sighed and cut in, "It means that your kid definitely has a thing for Cheshire and I'd bet my ring that they've definitely at least kissed before and now he's training her to be a hero. That's a whole lot more than just complimenting her villainous skills."

Oliver blanched, "Roy  _what_?"

Sighing again, Hal asked the world in general, "How is it that I somehow end up being the responsible one on missions with these two? Can we stop talking about this and maybe get to the fight that's going to help determine the fate of the world? Is that a thing we could maybe focus on?"

Barry and Oliver both ducked their heads, slightly chastised. Nodding his head, Barry motioned that the other two should step back a little bit. Even though the Rogues knew that all three were coming, he wanted to make this a proper show. He'd make it like he was going to trick the Rogues into thinking it was only him when really there were two more heroes ready to jump in and help.

He stood back where he was, listening slightly to what Captain Cold was saying. His voice was frigid and only a little bit smug when he spoke, "There will, of course, be new rules put in place. New laws. This is our city now and it will work the way we want it to, not the way it used to." Huh, seems like he'd missed the 'we are now in charge of this city' bit.

Flash zipped forward, asking curiously, "So, is the city going to be an oligarchy now? Or a monarchy with just Captain Cold in charge. I've always wondered how much say the other members of the team get when the Rogues become the leaders of the city. You know? Like, have you guys decided that?"

"Flash." Weather Wizard growled, hand tightening around his wand. Okay, it was going to be like that. The Rogues really were going to fight like it was real. Flash could roll with that.

"Yep!" Flash responded, popping his p, "That's me! Your city's friendly speedster! Hey, will I get paid now that you guys are in charge? I feel like I should be paid."

"Sure." Captain Cold drawled, lounging back in his chair like he didn't have a care in the world, "We'll make sure you get a nice, long,  _free_  stay in Iron Heights. Cost is on us." Barry heard Oliver and Hal groan loudly through the comms. He didn't think that the puns he and his villains traded were that bad. They were entertaining! They added something meaningful to a battle. Fights became not only a physical match, but a verbal spar as well. At least, that was how Barry thought about it.

Flash pouted dramatically, "Aw, that wasn't very nice! I'm just trying to have some friendly conversation with my new city leaders and I'm threatened. It's things like this that lead to rebellions, you know. People feel like their leaders don't care and bam, you've got guillotines in the main square."

Captain Cold's mouth lifted slightly in amusement, "Well then, we'll just have to discourage rebellion by taking out any opposition right at the beginning."

With that, Weather Wizard called down a field of lightning, police diving out of the way of huge blasts that left cars burning and blasted. Barry zipped through it and caught the flying door of a blown-up police car. He twisted around as he ran and  _flung_  it at the Rogues. He made sure that it was angled upwards, so the reporters weren't threatened. They were currently streaming down the stairs, hugging the sides of the building and making a wide berth around the area in front of City Hall as lightning smacked down into the ground, riddling it with charred regions.

Weather Wizard ducked, his concentration breaking and the lightning sputtering out for the moment. Barry shouted, "It's a good thing I've gathered a group to rebel with me then, isn't it!" Hal took that moment to form a green shield around City Hall, making sure that the people milling around wouldn't get hurt. The people still held hostage at the top of the stairs might cause some issues, but Barry wasn't entirely worried. It was all staged after all.

Hal murmured in their comms, " _Good thing you got him to stop with the lightning. I couldn't get a shield up with all that yellow coming down. I mean, I'm glad that he doesn't know my weakness and wasn't purposefully doing that to mess with me, but at the same time, it was really inconvenient that he didn't know that I couldn't put up a shield when he had that lightning going_."

" _And you were judging us for focusing on unimportant things when we should have been following the plan_." Oliver muttered back. Barry barely held back a laugh. Hal couldn't help but give a small chuckle. No matter how important this mission was or how stressed Barry was, he couldn't help but feel happy in that moment. There was always something so powerful and beautiful and strong about fighting crime with his two best friends. They were a force to be reckoned with when they were together. They understood each other better than anyone. They were true friends. And that was one of Barry's favorite things.

At that moment, the fight really began in earnest. For Barry, it was one of the few fast-paced battles he had experienced. The Rogues knew how to play this game with him, had been doing it for years. They knew how to move  _fast_. It was something that always surprised other heroes.

Everyone made fun of Barry and his two-bit villains, the Rogues who were so un-villainous that they could almost be called heroes. No one expected trouble out of an always fighting, incredibly diverse team of villains who were caught all the time. Then they actually started the fight. They realized what fighting against a speedster for years can do to your reaction time and quick-thinking skills. Other heroes realized that they needed to step up their game, fight a battle that was more fast paced than they'd ever experienced before. They were never prepared for the way one villain moved fast as lightning and then the previously captive other villain would be right there behind you, using your shock as cover.

Also, they were never prepared for Trickster.

All the other heroes had heard stories of his strange gadgets and weird comments during fights, but that never really prepared any of them for him. Even now, as Oliver and Hal (who had fought with Barry against the Rogues more than once) dove into the fray, Trickster played one of his favorite tricks on them. He perked up excitedly and called out, "Good shot Captain Cold! Nail that Flasher again!"

And somehow, despite the fact that Captain Cold was clearly  _right in front of them_ , both green themed heroes turned around towards where Flash was battling an army of Mirror Masters, determined to help the speedster. Instead, they ended up with Captain Cold's gun freezing them mid-turn.

It wasn't hard for Hal to break out of the ice, body still glowing faintly green as the ring burst into light, a huge boxing glove forming and smacking Trickster out of the air. Hal hissed quietly, " _I_ hate it _when he does that_ _._ So much."

Barry snickered, "Then stop getting distracted by it."

He broke away from the army of Mirror Masters (he was pretty sure that the real one wasn't actually in there) and rushed over to Green Arrow, vibrating his hands over the ice to melt it. Hal was knocking boomerangs away from himself as he tried to get closer to the hostages with no success. Every time he got even remotely close through the hail of boomerangs, a huge blast of tornado would send him flying back. It was obviously irritating him.

The ice around Oliver finally melted, the emerald archer taking a huge breath of air as his head surfaced. He growled at them, " _Thank you. Your lovely little chit chat was highly entertaining while I was_ dying in the ice."

" _We figured you'd like it_." Hal commented idly, " _Now come help us actually get something done_."

Pied Piper laughed from where he was, shaking his head and pulling his flute up to his lips. Barry twirled around, aiming for Piper. Piper's brow was crinkled. He wasn't able to speed up the tune he was playing without it affecting the purpose of the tune. Luckily, Barry reached the Piper before his tune could be completed. He barreled into the teenager, grabbing his flute and throwing it with all his might towards the green barrier. The flute cracked against the barrier and scattered to the ground. Piper made a wounded sound in the back of his throat, "Actually why would you do that? That was one of my favorites."

He sounded so mournful, but Barry just rolled his eyes beneath his cowl, "Like you and I don't both know that you have more than one flute on you."

Barry promptly let Pied Piper go, wincing a little bit at the high-pitched yelp the teen made as he connected with the ground and rolled a little bit. Before Piper had a chance to gather his bearings again, Barry secured his hands with some cuffs and a zip tie or two. He'd learned that it was better to be overcautious when securing these villains. Then again, he wanted them to get loose and keep the battle going, so… Eh, who cares? Piper would figure out how to get free eventually.

Turning his attention back to the fight, Barry realized that the hostages were still under Heatwave's cover. Sighing, Barry figured he'd wait a little bit longer to get into the fight and he'd just work on civilian duty for a little bit.

Racing along the edge of the building, Barry burst up onto the flat porch-like area around the front of City Hall. He had obviously surprised Heatwave, who clumsily turned his heat gun from Hal onto Barry. Barry got there before the gun could activate, punching Heatwaves in the face and knocking him off the edge of the platform. Captain Boomerang's surprised, "Oompf!" led Barry to believe that he managed to drop Heatwave right onto the Australian. That would have been awesome if it'd been his plan…

Quickly Barry surveyed the booby trap. Awesome. This was one of Trickster's super complicated ones. That was just great.

Sighing, Barry started to work through it. It was kind of set up like a game. There were keys and clues and he figured that if he didn't get it right, then there was a good chance that he'd set the booby trap off. Barry sighed again. Why did he get all the weird villains? Why couldn't it have just been a good old cage or something like that? Why did he have to play a  _game_?

Whatever, he'd just have to deal with it.

Alright, first step. There was a pile of wires placed in front of him. In neat little writing that was definitely not Trickster's, it said: 'There are two boxes in front of you. Together, they're a bomb! Sometimes. These wires connect the two boxes. Each place where you plug a wire in is labeled with one of the Rogues' names. The correct wire for each name is each person's favorite color! You have to put the wires in in order! If you get them all right, then there is no bomb and you can step to the next trap. If you get them wrong, then have fun being blown up!'

Great. He could do that. Alright, who was first? Captain Cold? Easy. He's blue. Heatwave? Red. Mirror Master? Green, also easy. Trickster? Dang it. Barry was really hoping that one was last. He was pretty sure that Trickster's favorite color was  _rainbow_ , but he couldn't be certain. And he wasn't certain he knew the favorite colors of the rest of the team either. Let's see… Captain Boomerang's was definitely white because he'd heard him and Weather Wizard get in an argument about it one time. He was pretty sure that Pied Piper's was purple? That was mainly a guess based on the fact that Piper wore a lot of purple clothes at the Rogue hideouts, so… Who was left? What colors were left? Weather Wizard, Trickster, and Momentum. Yikes, he wasn't expecting Momentum. Then the colors left were orange, yellow, indigo, and black. Why were there more colors than people? That was just cruel. Okay, out of the remaining colors, he was going to go orange for Trickster. That felt right. Which would Weather Wizard like? Definitely not yellow. He'd probably think black was too emo. Indigo for Weather Wizard it was.

That left yellow and black for Momentum. And, honestly, that was just cruel. They had to know that he didn't know his own nephew well enough to know the kid's favorite color. Well, okay. Context clues. The kid's suit had a lot of yellow on it? But that was probably meant to be a dig at Flash – using basically the invert of his colors. So, there was a chance that the yellow suit was just a coincidence. So, black? Momentum seemed… rebellious enough to like black? Barry didn't know. He didn't understand kids! Okay, okay. He could figure this out. Yellow or black? Yellow or black? Think back to when he knew Wally. The kid's favorite color had definitely been red at the time. Okay, that wasn't an option. That's okay. Was red to black a reasonable change? Well, he certainly changed a lot over his missing years. Then again, would he really like a color that signified the dark? He had to get stuck out on the streets alone, in the dark for two years.

Relatively certain (read: he had no clue and was desperately hoping he was right), Barry plugged in the yellow cord for Wally's spot. There was a beat of motionlessness and then, thankfully, the light on top of the boxes flashed green, the boxes moving together and out of his way. One trap down. Two more to go.

The next one was different. It was only a little box with a riddle written on the top: 'I'm going to give you a riddle that describes a villain. Guess who it is and then flip the top of the box and enter the name into it. Good luck! What does a turkey do when he flies upside down? What weighs six ounces, sits in a tree and is very dangerous?'

Barry just kind of stared at it. What? What kind of villain could this possibly describe. He knew the answer to the first part of the riddle – the turkey gobbles up. That wasn't that hard. The second part? Who knew? Wait, all he had to do was channel his inner Batman and Robin. What would they say to this?

In hindsight, he had the vaguest memory of this exact riddle before. Something about Batman and Robin triggered that memory. Did they come up with this riddle? Wait, no. Riddler. They must have faced off against the Riddler using this riddle. So… what was the answer? Also, side note, where was Trickster getting Riddler's riddles from? Anyways, what  _was_ the answer? Barry remembered it being something stupid. Something really weird and unusual. He didn't understand how anyone could have gotten it…

That's it! A sparrow with a machine gun! And put together, the villain is someone who gobbles up a sparrow with a machine gun! Cats gobble up birds and the only cat dangerous enough to take on a gun wielding one would be Catwoman. Triumphant and much surer of his answer than he had been last time, Barry flipped open the box and typed in the word 'Catwoman.'

The box made the same move as the last time, sweeping out of his way and letting him to the final riddle. Almost there.

The last one seemed infinitely less complicated than the other two. It almost seemed like a dare? A test of courage? Barry crinkled his nose as he looked at the last obstacle. It was a box like the other two, but there was a hole in the middle. Printed neatly above the hole read the words: 'I triple dog dare you to put your hand in there. Besides, you might like what you find!' On the one hand, it sounded to simplistic to be one of the Trickster's games. On the other hand, he was on new medication, so who knew what that would do to his games? Equally, that could make his games more innocent or more dangerous.

Well, there was only one thing to do to find out. Barry promptly stuck his hand into the hole.

Honestly, it was rather anticlimactic. The opening was smaller than it looked, and he was pretty sure he'd just gotten his wrist stuck in there, but still, there was nothing in there as he dug his hand around the small space to see if he was missing anything. Anticlimactic. Sighing, Barry pulled his hand out, frowning when it came out easier than it went it. That's normally not how it went. Plus, that tight feeling around his wrist didn't go away. Looking down at his hand, he saw the reason why. And it wasn't a good reason.

Properly freaked out now, time slowed dramatically around him. He gaped for a moment at the bomb strapped to his wrist.  _Seriously_? Also, it only had about seven seconds left which was really, really unfortunate. Okay, okay, what to do? He could deal with it. The moment he left Trickster's little game, there was a chance that it would all be reset by the time he came back. Knowing Trickster, there was probably even going to be another bomb. This was seriously annoying. Like, he understood that the idea was to drag this out, but this was a little overkill. And with Trickster, there was no telling what type of bomb it was. With Trickster on new meds, there was a good chance that this was a real bomb.

Rubbing his forehead wearily, he put a hand to his comms and carefully let time speed back up. He interrupted whatever Oliver was saying and said, "GL. Gonna throw something. Catch it in a construct." Then he cut out immediately ripping the thing off his hand and tossing it in the air.

Hal caught it in a green sphere, then cursed when the bomb exploded in a puff of yellow powder. He hissed under his breath, " _I'm starting to think they actually know what my weakness is. Because this is getting real irritating. What_ was _that_?"

"Probably itching powder." Barry sighed before ushering the hostages out of their restraints and towards the edge of the barrier, "Wanna let me and the hostages slip out real quick?"

" _Yeah, sure thing_." Hal answered.

Barry slid back in after getting them through and asked, "Okay, how long did that take?"

Oliver snorted and answered, " _Ten minutes._ "

Slumping, Barry whined, "Seriously? This is going to take  _forever_. I hate long, drawn out battles!"

" _Maybe you'd like them more if you actually did the battle instead of muttering to yourself in front of a bunch of hostages._ " Hal sniped.

Rolling his eyes, Barry punched the Rogue that was coming up behind Hal, dodging out of the way of one of Cold's blasts. He threw back, "I was fighting a mental battle! A battle of the wits!"

" _No wonder it took so long_." Hal responded.

Barry made a wounded noise but grinned all the same. Then his grin dimmed. This battle was going to go on  _forever_.


	56. Betrayed Them

BBBBBB

Bruce silently typed, eyes only for the screen he was glancing at, other senses trusted to warn him when another being entered the room. So far, the plan was going the way it was meant to. According to the information that came from both Cheshire and Icicle Jr., the Light were going crazy, trying to figure out what was going on with the Rogues.

Because the battle was dragging on so long, the Light was starting to get worried that other Leaguers would be called to the scene. Typically, Flash, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow would be more than enough to deal with the Rogues, but obviously they were faking it. The Light probably believed that the League was worn down from having to deal with so much pressure from everywhere recently and the heroes were actually having a hard time against the Flash.

Based on what little Cheshire and Icicle Jr. knew of the new and updated plan, the Light wanted all of the Leaguers in the same place. Without them in the same place, apparently the big plan couldn't work or wouldn't work as well or wouldn't have as big of a success. With some supposedly possibly going to aid Flash, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern in Central, then their plan would be ruined, and the Light would be in chaos, hopefully making it easier to sneak into. Something like that. The Light had timed it so that all the League members that didn't have other engagements would be in the same place – up in the Watchtower celebrating New Year's Eve. Even Bruce had been coerced into coming. The Light most likely knew this because of Red Arrow, but Bruce couldn't find it in him to be too upset about it.

It wasn't an easy thing to know that you were the cause of a lot of otherwise avoidable incidents, especially ones that could have potentially caused so much strife,  _had_  caused so much strife. Red Arrow was prone to beating himself up about the smallest things. There was no doubt in Bruce's mind that the kid was beating himself up more than enough about the situation. He didn't need Bruce getting onto him about it too. Besides, this just validated Bruce's argument that all of the sidekicks, sorry,  _younger heroes_ , should regularly eat/drink GPS laced foods/drinks, so the older heroes could find them if the need should ever arise.

Although, thinking of that threw Bruce back to the GPS the inhibitor collar had implanted in Momentum. That hadn't worked out the way he'd wanted it to. He couldn't imagine what villains would do to the Team to try to get any GPS's out of their system if they were captured. He didn't want to go into the room that held the last known location for someone he cared about and find only a pool of blood. He didn't even know Momentum, only having had one conversation with him and then watching from afar, and he'd been horrified at the puddle of blood they'd discovered in that Light safehouse.

Bruce heard the distinct sounds of Diana's footsteps nearing the door. He paused in his typing for a second before resuming it. Diana stepped into the room, coming up to rest a hand on Bruce's shoulder, "You seem rather intent on your task. Is there something you are thinking so deeply of?"

"The GPS I put into Momentum." Bruce answered, too tired and determined to make sure that the League was constantly ready to move to where it was needed to pull up the guise of Batman.

Diana's hand slipped from his shoulder and she turned to lean her back against the console, expression sad as she watched him, "That wasn't you fault. It wasn't Roy's either. Neither of you could have realized that the Light would have gotten into the system and realized what the tracker was and how to get rid of it. It wasn't your fault that they were so…  _crude_  about their removal method either."

"I know," Bruce started, fingers slowing slightly before picking up speed again, words flitting across the screen, "It's just that I haven't seen Dick that upset in a long time. He really cares about Momentum." He paused again before giving up on typing, turning slightly to face the Amazon, "When Dick admitted to me that he'd been texting someone for a while, that he'd given the other kid an alias, but that he'd been given an alias back, I was… excited. Dick doesn't make friends easily and he certainly doesn't make friends that he can have without having to keep up some sort of mask. The kids at school can't know he's Robin. The kids on the Team can't know he's Dick. I think with Momentum, Dick could just be himself." He sighed, resting his hands against the console.

Diana smiled slightly, "I have not yet had the experience of meeting Momentum, but I hope I can before this is all over. He is quite the strange character to have inspired such loyalty from villains and heroes alike. How is it that one child can bring us together so well?"

Bruce smiled back, "Somehow, I'm not surprised it was a speedster that brought us together."

That caused Diana to laugh, head thrown back, "Nor does it surprise me!" They shared another smile before Diana tilted her head slightly, expression turning curious, "What will you do when this is all over? Regarding Dick's… friendship with Momentum?"

Bruce paused before he answered, wondering at Diana's strange hesitance before the word friendship. Was this another moment of woman's intuition? It was the one detective skill Bruce would never be able to learn. After a second, he responded, "I'll have to see where Dick wants this to go. In the end, I know him, and he'll go behind my back within a second to be with a friend if he still does really want this. I've seen him do it with some of the messes him and Roy have gotten into."

Diana sent him that curious look again, "I am not sure that you will be fine with what Dick aims to achieve in their friendship."

Narrowing his eyes into his typical Bat Glare, Bruce was mildly gratified to see her wince slightly, "What do you mean by that?"

She shrugged delicately, shoulders rippling with muscles, "If you cannot figure it out yourself, then you do not deserve to know. Besides, you'll find out eventually." Diana made a quick retreat before Bruce could question her further.

He got back to typing, mind replaying the scenes of his ward and the newest Rogue interacting. What was he missing? What did Diana foresee happening in their relationship that Bruce wouldn't like?

Wait.

Relationship.

Friendship is a type of relationship, but sometimes friendships turn into a  _different_ kind of relationship.

That sort of relationship typically fell under the purview of a woman's intuition. That must be how Diana knew. Who else knew? Did anyone else know? How could Bruce had missed this? What was he even supposed to do about it?

Shaking his head, Bruce calmed himself down. He was Batman. Batman didn't panic at the thought of his son beginning a romantic relationship with a villain.

Scrubbing a hand over his face, Bruce sighed. Who was he kidding? This was a very Batman-like thing to freak out about. He didn't know how to handle the situation. Diana was right; he certainly did not approve of his son dating a villain. But who was he to scold Dick about it? Any comment he made would be immediately shot down with examples, such as Penumbra and Ten of the Royal Flush Gang and the Phantasm and Nocturna. That wasn't even mentioning ones like Talia al Ghul or, more convincingly, his on-again-off-again relationship with Catwoman. He honestly had no room to talk.

Would Dick understand that he was speaking from past experience and could say without a second of hesitation that being in a romantic relationship with a villain would only end in heartbreak and misery? Probably not. Once again, Catwoman would be cited. Bruce honestly kept going back to her, again and again. He did that to himself repeatedly. How could he tell Dick to not do the same?

Beyond that, Momentum wasn't the same as Catwoman. Selina was a thief and a villain of Gotham whereas Momentum was one of Central City's Rogues. Selina far outclassed him when it came to the art of thievery. On the other hand, though, how different were they really? Bruce had the feeling that Selina would like Momentum. They grew up on the tough streets after having abusive parents. They spent some time in institutions that was abusive towards the children they housed. Neither one was entirely good or bad. When thinking about Momentum's tendency to switch sides based on his whims, Bruce was reminded of a conversation he'd had with Catwoman once.

She had helped him fight Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter. Immediately afterwards, she joined Two-Face's group and tried to take control of Gotham from Falcone. He'd asked her who's side she was really on, where her allegiances really lied. She'd looked him in the face and replied, "My own." Bruce had the feeling that Momentum was like that. Maybe with time, with a good influence, he might fight for someone other than himself. He might realize that he was safe enough to.

The more he thought about it, the less he really had a right to comment on it, to complain about it and try to stop it. It wasn't his place. His ward was growing up. Dick could navigate this field of land mines on his own. It wasn't a fun path to travel, but Bruce had to believe that the reward on the other side was worth it. And, of course, he might do a little threatening before he really let Dick get in a relationship with Momentum. Maybe a smidge more than a little threatening. There might be roofs involved. Maybe a few batarangs. What Dick didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

The door hissed open again behind him. Bruce imperceptibly tilted his head to the side. He didn't recognize the footsteps… Ah, it must be Icicle Jr. The teenaged villain was skulking around the Watchtower, constrained to only a few rooms. The only person he knew who was with them was Plastic Man and, apparently, the two were currently not talking. Bruce thought it had less to do with actual anger towards each other and everything to do with not knowing how to deal with each other now that they were firmly on opposite sides. It was a problem everyone who went undercover had to deal with.

Icicle Jr. came up to stand next to Bruce, pausing for a moment as he seemingly just then noticed Batman standing there before shrinking a little in on himself and moving cautiously towards the console. Bruce watched as Icicle Jr. stared at the mass of consoles (they'd blocked out all views of the outside world, hopefully protecting the knowledge that their base was a satellite orbiting around Earth). The teen was still recovering from whatever injuries he'd been given in his escape. His eyes still had dark circles under them (according to Red Tornado, who was in charge of watching the villain at night, Icicle Jr. had not been sleeping well at all, only managing an hour or two each night) and there were fading bruises highlighting his jaw and cheekbone.

If it wasn't for the bluish-white skin, the shockingly white hair, and the slight chill that was constantly emanating from him, all Bruce would see was a brutalized child who needed someone to help him and tell him it was okay. All he would see was someone hurting, and he'd do anything to help them. This wasn't just anybody, though. This was a villain, one who had hurt people and committed crimes. That didn't mean that Bruce wasn't willing to help him. It just meant that there were some things that he couldn't do for the teen, no matter how much he wanted to help the boy standing silently next to him.

He'd seen Icicle Jr. opening and closing his mouth next to him, obviously working up the courage to speak, so it wasn't that much of a surprise when he finally said, "You can't beat them."

Curious, Bruce asked, "Then why escape and come to us? Why help Cheshire give us such important advice?"

Icicle Jr.'s shoulders slumped, "What else could I do?"

Bruce considered him for a moment before changing tracks, "I can't imagine your first consideration being to go to Central City and confronting the Flash. You haven't had a real interaction with him. Momentum dislikes him more than others. The Rogues were in the exact same city and you purposefully set off a chain of events aimed towards getting the Flash's attention and not theirs. Why not trust the villains who are very invested in getting their own team member back?" When the conversation had started, Bruce had let only enough growl in his voice to hide his identity, but by now he was in full-on interrogation mode, suspicions entering his mind, not letting him see a beaten child, instead seeing an enemy.

The way Icicle Jr. curled in on himself at Bruce's barrage made the old hero's confidence in his paranoia waver a little, Icicle Jr.'s next words making the paranoia waver a little more, "A lot of kids grow up hearing about heroes as, well,  _heroes_. They hear tales of their exploits, their victories. They cheer when heroes are seen in the streets. I grew up being told to hate them. I heard tales of the way they attacked people trying to make a living the only way they knew how. I heard of their failures, their weaknesses. I would hide when heroes were seen in the streets. But… the Rogues told Wally a lot of stories. About… about Flash. And Wally told me a lot of them in the few rare times he wasn't being dragged away for  _something_. All I could think was that those weren't heroes and villains. That was a family and their family friend and the adventures they had. That was it. No good or bad. No heroes and villains. No  _picking sides_. And then Plastic Man was a villain and Wally used to be a criminal informant and even  _Cheshire_  is switching sides. I just… we talked about it on the way back to base after the safe house. We talked about how to get out and he said he didn't trust the heroes to save us, but he'd trust me to trust the heroes. I thought of his stories of Flash and the Rogues and I thought… maybe I could trust one. Maybe I could trust one and hope that was enough to get him out."

By the end, all of Bruce's paranoia had fizzled out. He knew that his aggressively suspicious behavior could be overbearing and cause problems, but it had prevented more problems than it had created. Besides, it wasn't like he'd gone too far this time. Icicle Jr. probably felt a little threatened, but Bruce hadn't gotten violent – not that he'd want to with a child, even a suspicious one. But Icicle Jr. wasn't a suspicious figure. He was a scared child who honestly hadn't had anyone to turn to. It warmed Bruce's jaded heart a little bit to see him turn to heroes.

After a moment, Bruce let out a little sigh through his nose, voice a little softer, still gruff, "It doesn't surprise me that a speedster was the one that was able to get your trust. Speedsters are like that."

There was a small smile dancing around the edges of Icicle Jr.'s lips as he chuckled softly and said, "Yeah, I got that. They're stupidly caring. Like, it's a problem."

"You think that until you've seen one mad." Bruce muttered, more to himself than anything.

Icicle Jr. snorted, "Yeah? I suppose I could see that. I've never really seen Wally mad. I guess he was too wiped out to get mad at anything. And despite it all, I think he actually enjoyed his time with the Light. At least, before…" His amused mood faded, leaving him small and pale in the glow of the monitors. His skin looked sicklier than it had before, and he was trembling slightly, limbs swaying slightly with his desperate shaking.

Bruce resisted the urge to put out a hand on the teen's shoulder – he'd already lost enough of his tough, terrifying guy act as it was – and instead asked curiously, "Is something wrong?"

Icicle Jr. backed away a little bit until he was almost directly behind Bruce. He was shaking harder now, a tear forming and freezing halfway down his cheek. He wouldn't meet Bruce's eye when he whispered, "I'm so sorry."

Before Bruce could whip around and do anything, Icicle Jr. was there, pressing what, from the brief glance he'd gotten of it, looked like a bio-tech chip into Bruce's neck. Bruce gasped, feeling his body shutting down, losing control. Icicle Jr. had another tear streaming down his face and freezing, small and sad and scared as he stood there, and Bruce lost control. Icicle Jr. betrayed them.


	57. He's Alive

WWWWWW

Wally was pretty sure there was something wrong. There was something that he was supposed to do? Or have done to him? Or with him? He didn't know. There was just  _something_  that was supposed to have happened and he didn't know what it was, but it was  _bad_  that it wasn't happening. The scientists had definitely drugged him, though. There was a drug somewhere in this whole equation. Wally was kind of surprised at that. Drugs normally didn't work all that well with him. What properties did this one have that made it work? Was it made specifically for people with his metabolism?

Things were weird with the drug. It kind of cycled between three stages: clarity, la la land, and intense adrenaline. It was kind of what Wally figured would happen if Scarecrow's and Joker's gases mixed. It wasn't particularly fun but, to be honest, the worst moments were the moments of clarity. This was probably how people got hooked on drugs. Wally was pretty sure he was reaching the tail end of the la la land stage at the moment. He still felt pretty loopy, but also was aware(ish) enough to recognize that he was feeling loopy.

This was messed up. He hated it. What were the scientists even trying to achieve? He could feel them watching him, could feel chains holding him down. The inhibitor collar was off, which was weird. They didn't normally take it off. Were they seeing how his powers reacted with the drug? What drug was this again?

Wally could physically  _feel_  when the adrenaline stage hit. It felt like something had been released within him. His thoughts started racing, faster than usual, faster than life. His body started shaking, overpowering stress and panic flooding his veins. There were threatening shadows all around him. Every scientist looked like they were holding a knife. Every guard seemed to be lumbering straight at him. There was something wrong, wrong, wrong with what was happening. What was happening?

Wally didn't care. It didn't matter where he was, who he was, why he was. All he needed was to get out of the there. He needed to move! There was something stopping him from… from fleeing! From fighting! He didn't know! But there was something stopping him. He needed it to go away. He needed it gone. Why wasn't it gone? How could he get out?

He was vaguely aware of himself howling, desperately bucking against the bonds. There was something warm and slick running down his wrists, his ankles, his waist, his neck; there was no pain. It couldn't be bad then if there was no pain. Why did he care? It wasn't helping him get out! Wait, wait, wait, wait. No! No, it was helping! The slick against his extremities made it easier to get out! Wally could feel his wrists slipping and pulling and yanking through the chain. There was the sound of something ripping (had he ripped a shirt?) and then a hand was loose. The other hand popped free with a crunch, but his ankles were harder to get free. He kept yanking and pulling on those, a desperate howl accenting his movements.

There were other movements around him, screaming and yelling and Wally wasn't sure how much of it was there, how much of it was his, how much of it didn't really exist in anyone's mind but his. Something clamped on one of his finally freed hands and started shoving it back in one of the bonds. Screeching, Wally started vibrating, the adrenaline making the vibrations more violent and uncontrolled than usual. The person who'd held his hand yelped and smacked him (he didn't feel it) before quickly shoving the hand in and cinching the cuff tighter than it had been before.

Slowly, by increments so small Wally almost didn't even realize it, the adrenaline faded to leave tired, broken clarity in it's wake. Wally was almost instantly moaning, all the pain that had been dull and unrecognizable in the adrenaline rush coursing through his veins again, lighting up every nerve and shattering any form of comfort he might have had. He was viscerally aware of the split skin that was struggling to close, of the crushed thumb that was trying to heal, but doing it wrong. He could feel every wound he'd opened in his mad struggling. He could feel everything.

Wally was too exhausted to cry. There was something about the falling rush of adrenaline that was more exhausting than anything else. Without anything better to do (and desperately hoping for something to take his mind off of the all-encompassing pain), Wally tried to think back through the ideas that had flitted through his mind last la la land cycle. Maybe he thought up some way to take down the Light while he was high out of his mind.

His mind stuttered back to the thought that there was something that was supposed to have happened. What… What was supposed to have happened? What was it that he actually looked forward to in this godforsaken place? What could he possibly be… Oh. Oh! Wally shot upwards a little bit, choking when his neck hit the cold metal keeping him down. Once he got his breath back, Wally croaked, "I… I-Ici-c…le J-j-jun…ior."

One of the scientists frowned down at him, prying his mouth open and taking a careful swab. Wally reached out with crooked fingers and hooked them onto the scientist's lab coat. In a slightly clearer voice, Wally croaked, "I…cicle… Jun…ior. Icicle… Junior."

Clicking his tongue slightly, the scientist turned to the side, calling out, "Hey, guards. Has it been to the viewing room yet? To see that Icicle Jr.? It keeps saying the name. Obviously, it can't go until the test is gone, but I think it's been a bit too long."

One of the guards responded smoothly, "Icicle Jr. is out on assignment, sir. When he returns, it will be able to see him."

"Any clue when that'll be?" One of the other scientists asked curiously, injecting the next round of drugs into Wally's system, ignoring the flinch and full body shudder.

The guard shrugged, "He's set to return today or tomorrow. Two days max. It wasn't that long of an assignment based on the rumor mill."

The head scientist sighed aggressively, "I hate this arrangement. Letting it go and see that other metahuman makes things difficult. It's harder to do long term tests on the subject when it has to be able to get to the room and back every other day. Waste of time in my mind."

"Amen." One of the other scientists muttered.

Things kind of faded after that as Wally fell back into la la land. His last coherent thought was that he hoped Cameron was back sooner rather than later.

DDDDDD

Dick moved into position as soon as Roy signaled it, crouching lower and rolling into an empty room. Thanks to Cheshire and Icicle Jr.'s info, the group had gotten into the Light's base with relative ease. There had definitely been some hiccups on the way in: an extra guard at the entrance they went through, a meta smoking in a stairwell where he wasn't supposed to be. But they dealt with it efficiently and quickly.

This room was where they'd set up base so to say. Basically, this empty room with trash cameras would be where they would take a breather and where the two groups would rendezvous if something went wrong.

Roy and Cheshire individually lead each of the groups. Dick was in Cheshire's group, along with Artemis and Black Canary. His was the group that was going to be sent to go get Wally.

The plan was simple, honestly. Some pre-game hacking would lock a lot of the bad guys in the dorms. Roy's group would go out and take down literally everyone else in the compound. Cheshire's group would head off towards the labs and free Wally – and any one else if there even was another person there. The hope was that they could take over the compound and deal with the people in the dorms afterwards. Icicle Jr. said something about the people in the dorms probably being willing to at least listen if the Team saved Wally. Apparently, he really did make everyone like him. He had a magnetic personality like that.

Cheshire made a hand signal before jerking her head in a specific direction, black hair fanning out around her. Dick, Artemis, and Black Canary moved out silently, their feet making no sound as they walked, Cheshire leading them through the camera blind spots. Hopefully Roy's group was already causing problems and they didn't need to be as careful as they were, but the element of surprise should never be doubted. It was a powerful weapon to wield.

They had taken more corners than Dick could count when Artemis hissed, "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

Cheshire clicked her tongue, but answered reluctantly, "I'm sure."

"How can we trust that?" Artemis pressed. Having done some research, Dick knew exactly who Artemis was and exactly who Cheshire was. He'd been expecting some level of animosity between the two girls, but this was getting out of control. Their problem shouldn't slow down the mission.

Cheshire hissed out, "I know where we're going because I led Wally here almost every single day." The group went silent with the admission, Dick clenching his fists. He knew that Cheshire hadn't meant anything personal by doing that to Wally, had only been following orders. He understood that she was trying to make amends. That didn't mean that it didn't make him angry. A moment later, Cheshire admitted quietly, "And, despite what Icicle Jr. said, I have gone to visit him. He just never saw me… I was supposed to train him, but… I left before that happened."

Nothing else was said until they reached the labs. Pausing in the room that looked almost like a typical doctor's office, Cheshire told them very quietly, "I know that Red Arrow already took you three aside and explained the situation in more detail to you. I know that he explained what I told him and that you know that Wally is being experimented on. Hearing the details and seeing them are two very different things. I talked a little bit to Icicle Jr. and he gave me more detail about what Wally looked like. This won't be easy. He's going to be in a lot of pain and he's going to be barely coherent and he's going to have a hard time moving. Be prepared." She started moving before anyone could respond.

Dick swallowed harshly before looking over at Artemis. The two shared a look, somehow comprehending each other through their masks. Dick nodded to her and, after a moment of hesitation, she nodded back. They could manage this. For Wally. For justice.

The four moved as one through the hallways, Cheshire pausing every few turns and thinking for a second before continuing on. Dick tried to memorize the path they were taking, but it was proving to be difficult. The place was a maze.

Apparently, Black Canary agreed because she sighed after another turn and said, "Does this place even have an end?"

Cheshire chuckled darkly, "It's designed this way to prevent test subjects from escaping."

Artemis shook her head slightly, "I thought you guys said that Wally had… been here once before and had escaped on his own."

Looking over her shoulder at her sister, Cheshire answered, "He did. Just because it's designed to keep subjects from leaving doesn't mean it's always successful. Honestly, I'm not sure how he managed it. He's the only one who's escaped, though."

It made Dick sick to his stomach just being there. Every closed door made him think of what could have happened to Wally behind it. Every carpeted space made him think of the puddle of blood that had been all that was left of Wally's trackers. His stomach churned with his thoughts and he suddenly wasn't sure if he was going to be brave enough to see Wally again. That didn't mean that he wasn't going to go through with this. It didn't matter how much it would hurt him to see Wally as long as it meant that Wally would be rescued. He'd deal with the mental trauma after this all finished.

On the other hand, though, he was kind of excited to see Wally. He knew that it wasn't going to be pretty and he was going to regret that thought for the rest of his life, but he really did want to see Wally again. The last time he'd seen him had been Wally running away. Escaping. Running back to the people who had ruined his life, who they were forced to rescue him from now.

It had broken his heart to see Wally run. He had hoped that Wally finally starting to trust them and understand. He had hoped that Wally could see their way, could help them defeat the Light, could  _join_  them. Dick had known it was a futile dream, but he'd dreamed it regardless. What else could he do?

It  _sucked_ to be romantically interested in a villain. Robin didn't know if it could go anywhere, if Wally would  _want_  it to go anywhere. They were morally opposite. Dick wasn't sure if he would be okay with the knowledge that his boyfriend was out there robbing something while he was in his manor. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to fight his boyfriend on the battlefield. He wasn't sure how he would feel to see Wally get arrested. A relationship with a villain – even one as un-villainous as the rest of the Rogues – would be difficult to maintain, especially long distance. Then again, with a speedster and someone who had access to zeta beams, was it really a long-distance relationship? That would require further thought.

Dick shook his head. This was so not what he needed to be thinking about. He was trying to rescue Wally from the people who were experimenting on him! He didn't need to be fantasizing about a relationship that would probably never happen! Besides, Wally would not need him there pushing his feelings onto the speedster while he was trying to recover. Wally would have enough on his plate with an overzealous acrobat. Then there was Bruce and Alfred to worry about. There was no way that either of them would approve. Bruce was easy to manipulate into agreeing because, honestly, he did the same thing  _all the time_. Alfred would be harder to convince. He always seemed to know when someone was evil, and he  _never_  approved of any of Bruce's villain girlfriends. So, Alfred would take some talking with. Maybe Dick could just introduce Alfred and Wally and Alfred would fall in love with Wally like literally everyone else did and it would all be okay.

Then again, that raised another problem. Wally and Dick had been talking practically daily for months. Wally didn't know who Dick was, though. To him, Dick was Freddie or Robin. There was no Richard Grayson in there. Bruce might be manipulated into allowing Dick to have a relationship with Wally, but there was no way he'd let Dick compromise their identities like that. And if you were hiding something that vital in a relationship, then could it really be called a relationship? Dick didn't think so. That was something else he'd need to think on.

Luckily, Dick was trained to keep careful track of his surroundings even when he was distracted, so he saw Cheshire stop and raise her hand for a halt before he did something embarrassing like crash into her. He had a feeling that wouldn't be appreciated.

For a second, he couldn't tell what had gotten her to stop. There was silence and Dick couldn't see anything.

And then there was a scream.

It sounded like someone was dying.

It was undeniably Wally.

The four of them burst forward at the same time, forgetting their formation and the plan of being incognito. They rushed towards the sound, Cheshire and Dick at least keeping careful track of the turns they made.

They tore the door open, Black Canary's voice ripping it to shreds. They didn't have time for finesse at the moment.

The door shreds settled to the ground and guards came pouring through the door, guns blazing and radios up against their mouths, expressions tight when they realized that their radios weren't transmitting.

None of that mattered, though. All that mattered was that Wally was there, screaming and bleeding and chained down, but there. Alive.


	58. Unaccounted For

DDDDDD

It was Dick's job to get Wally. They had all agreed that he was the one who was most likely to appeal to an injured, scared, barely coherent Wally. With the way Wally was thrashing around on the table, though, Dick wasn't sure that even their friendship would be enough to get through to him.

Ducking a wild swing, Robin moved into a somersault and came back up closer to the table. The table was right in front of him, but the scientists were rapidly unhooking machines and placing a cover over Wally. They were trying to get him out of the room before the heroes could get to them. And Dick had no doubt that the scientists would be able to disappear into this maze without a trace. This place was designed to be confusing and there was a good chance that they'd lose Wally forever if Dick allowed the scientists to get him out of the room.

Charing forward, Robin had to momentarily leap backwards to avoid an errant baton. None of the guards were very heavily armed. Dick supposed that wasn't all that surprising since, theoretically, all the guards had to do was watch over metas or, in this case, the single meta. Also, theoretically, the meta would have an inhibitor collar on as often as possible. So, the guards really wouldn't need all that much in terms of protection gear, especially (and Dick cringed to think about this) if the guards made sure that the meta was afraid of them. This whole situation was messed up. It was messed up and disgusting and unbelievable. Even through his career of being a hero seeing the worst that Gotham had to offer, there were still things that were inconceivable to Robin. How could people even consider doing this? The scientists had blood flecks all up and down their lab coats and they  _didn't even care_.

The worst part about it? All over the world there was anti-meta propaganda and mindsets. People wanted to decrease metahuman rights because they "weren't really human, so they didn't deserve them." And yet, here was a tableau of uncaring, unfeeling  _human_  scientists experimenting on a (relatively) innocent metahuman. Actually, they were experimenting on him before he came a villain. Meta haters called out the metas on turning to villainism without realizing that they were the ones who lead them there!

Dick let his anger at the people who hurt Wally, at the situation, at the stupid people who couldn't accept someone who was different than them, at the  _world_  fuel his attacks. He swung, ducked, dodged, evaded. He made his way easily and effortlessly towards the scientists. His heart was pounding as Wally's screams tapered off to pained whimpers and one of the scientists shouted something about needing another dose.

Determined to make sure that didn't happen, Dick leapt forward, catching one man by the pocket of his lab coat and practically throwing him to the other side of the room. He threw his bo staff at another scientist, feeling guilty satisfaction at the solid sound it made impacting the man's head. Dick swept underneath the third scientist, spinning as he slid and kicking the man's feet out from beneath him. He punched the man in the nose as the man fell. The scientist's eyes rolled back up into his head.

There were two others guarding Wally. One was a female scientist who was small and skinny and had big brown eyes that looked far too young for the kind of work that she was doing. The other was a hulking man with brown hair that looked like it was smudged with the faintest of red Georgia clay. He had piercing eyes and a uniform that identified him as a guard. On the one hand, the scientist was the most likely to give Wally another dose of whatever it was they were giving him. On the other hand, the guard was the most likely to escape with Wally.

Shaking his head slightly, Dick figured that he would just have to take them both out at the same time.

It didn't exactly go like that.

Dick had retrieved his bo staff when he'd slid across the ground. He threw it again, throwing it with all his strength at the brute of a guard. Dick immediately moved onto the girl, feeling bad about hitting her when she looked so innocent, but knowing that she wasn't actually innocent, that she had done horrible things. He sent a flying kick into her gut, sending her reeling back. The next kick he aimed for her was cut short when she started wildly swinging the syringe. Dick jumped back. It was obvious that she didn't really have all that much training, but Dick did  _not_ want to get hit with whatever drug it was that was strong enough to make a  _speedster_  scream like that. Not a lot of drugs even got to the point of affecting a speedster before it was already out of their system.

When Dick jumped back, though, he wasn't expecting to run straight into the hulking guard from earlier. His gasp was quickly cut off as the man pulled Robin's own bo staff against his neck, cutting off his air.

Getting his hands on the staff, Dick tensed his abdomen muscles and back muscles and then  _rocked_  backwards. He swung his lower half up off the ground and back over his shoulders. The sudden change in position forced the guard to loosen his grip on the staff and stumble back a little bit. Taking advantage of the momentary lapse in control over the bo staff, Dick grabbed it, wrenching it out of the man's hand and cracking him across the face with it. The man seemed barely phased, simply throwing out a meaty hand to grip the bo staff and start wrestling for it again. Growling, Dick used the man's grip on the staff against him, putting his weight on the bo staff and jumping up again. This time, Dick planted his feet solidly in the man's midriff, kicking off and using the momentum of the sudden freeing of the bo staff to flip himself in the air and land in a defensive position.

Luckily, Dick didn't have to worry about him any longer because Cheshire was on the man in a flash, tearing into him with small strikes and lightning moves. There was a lethal  _fury_  in her movements that was almost mesmerizing to watch. Dick wondered what it was that the man had done to Cheshire to incite that level of anger. That was something for another time, though. Wally was still over there.

In the time that Dick had been fighting the guard, the scientist had unhooked the last of the machines and had just stuck the needle into Wally's skin. Dick breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that none of the liquid had gone it yet. He burst into action, knocking the woman away and  _carefully_  extracting the needle.

For a brief moment, Wally turned his head to look at Dick, murky eyes settling on the iconic form and widening briefly. Wally just stared at him for a second and then murmured, voice shattered and nearly too quiet to hear, especially in the midst of the battle, "You came." Then those murky, beautiful, perfect emerald eyes wandered across the room.

Heart beating even harder in his rib cage, Robin made one final hit to ensure that the scientist really was out before starting to pick the locks of the cuffs. He had to stop himself from puking at the sight of the blood coating a couple of them, torn skin underneath demonstrating where the blood came from. The new blood made the locks slippery and the old blood made the locks gummy (making Robin wonder how long Wally had been there, suffering on that table) which all made picking the locks more difficult, but eventually Dick did it.

For a second, Wally didn't move. Then he limply twitched one of his hands, slowly moving his head to look at the freed hand. His breath caught in his throat and he choked on it for a moment before coughing it out. Dick whispered to Wally, "Hey, we need to go now. Cheshire, Black Canary, and Artemis are going to cover our retreat. I'm going to carry you, okay? Can you handle a fireman carry? It's okay if you can't, but that would be the most convenient because I can still kind of fight that way."

Another second passed where Wally was frozen, just staring at his freed hand. Then he lifted those eyes back up to Dick and blinked slowly, painfully, "Fireman's… okay…" There was a silence as Dick started to (very slowly, very carefully) move Wally into position before Wally continued, voice sounding like there was a bag of sandpaper in his throat, "You… came…"

"Of course, I came." Dick answered, speaking even as he ignored the weak whimpers that Wally made as he pulled the speedster over his shoulder, "We're friends, right? Besides, who else would play Scrabble with me at three o'clock in the morning? And there's a lot we need to talk about. Plus, Icicle Jr. misses you and so do the Rogues and Flash and Red Arrow and Plastic Man. There's a lot we need to catch up on too." He paused for a moment before admitting softly, "And… after that text? I couldn't just leave things like that."

Wally shook his head against Dick's lower back, murmuring, "You… don't get it…. I didn't… trust in… you. I didn't… think… you'd actually… get this far…."

Dick joked quietly, "Your faith is astounding."

Wally didn't respond at all for a moment and Dick was mildly concerned, but then Wally whispered against his neck, "What… happened to… my fat-ther?" Wait… what? Dick made a questioning noise in the back of his throat and, after a pause to catch his breath, Wally continued, "The one… you fought last… by the table… my father."

Dick felt his breath catch in his throat, "He's unconscious. I'm sorry, Wally. For him hurting you. For me hurting him." Wally let out a small sigh in response, going limp over Dick's shoulders. Dick tightened his grip on Wally's upper thighs and started moving through the room.

The girls saw him moving and flanked him with Black Canary in front to stop anyone from getting too close. The five of them moved through the hallways, Cheshire calling out quiet leads. They couldn't hear anything from the rest of the compound, but Cheshire had explained that it was normal for that to happen. The labs were soundproofed from the rest of the compound because metahumans who work for the Light didn't particularly enjoy listening to other metas being experimented on. Some of the metas who worked for the Light were low enough on the food chain that they didn't even know that there was metahuman experimentation going on in the labs.

They were nearing the door that would lead them out of the labs entirely when the comms crackled into life, Red Arrow tapping into the frequency that had both teams on it, " _We've got a problem. The people in the dorm got out. Expect about a third of them to be just wandering around. The rest of them are heading towards my group, but there's no accounting for the others._ "

Cheshire cursed, but continued to resolutely lead them towards the exit. There really was no other way to go at this point but forward. After a minute or so of walking, Artemis sidled up to Dick and whispered, "Do you need me to carry him for a bit?"

Dick grit his teeth and practically hissed, "No! I've got him." He wasn't letting anyone take Wally away from him at this point. Not when they were so close to the end, to freedom.

Artemis backed off quickly, eyebrows raised. She sent him a tiny look afterwards, one that she didn't think that Robin would see. She looked at him like he was something fragile and near to being torn apart. Why did she see Robin like that? Then her eyes traveled to Wally thrown over Dick's shoulders. Something pained and foreign flitted through her eyes. All at once, Dick understood what was going on. Artemis knew that Dick liked Wally romantically. She knew that he was slowly falling in love with the speedster and she knew that this upcoming battle to get Wally back on his feet was going to hurt Dick as much as it would hurt Wally. Then Dick identified the foreign emotion in her eyes and realized that it was more than just her feeling bad for Dick having to deal with Wally while he recovered. She, at least a little bit, shared Dick's feelings for the ginger speedster.

Dick felt his heart clench. He could definitely understand why the archer would be interested in Wally, but the idea of Wally going with her physically pained him. At the same time, he had never seen Artemis display even the slightest interest in someone else. It hurt him to see his teammate like that, holding herself back to protect him and make sure that he was able to be happy. It warmed his heart and made it break all at once.

At some point, Dick was going to have to figure out a way to thank Artemis for all of that without actually letting on that he knew what she was going through. She'd be completely embarrassed.

Cheshire's raised hand telling them to stop halted Dick's thought process as well. They all stood frozen for a moment. There were sounds in the hallway they needed to turn into. The people in the hallway were confused, but it sounded like there was a lot of them. Dick remembered Roy's warning that the people who roomed at the Light had gotten free somehow.

Suddenly, the voices were moving closer. There wasn't enough time to move, to get away. The only thing the group of heroes could do was get into defensive positions in the middle of the hallway, preparing for whatever might come their way.

The people in the hallway turned the corner.

Dick and the other heroes came face to face with all the unaccounted for villains who boarded at the Light.


	59. Run Again

WWWWWW

Wally resisted the urge to hiss when awareness returned. He didn't even bother taking stock of his injuries. There was still a light tint of the drug cycling through his system and everything hurt. He wasn't sure he'd come even close to being able to catalogue his wounds. Slowly, Wally became aware he was being carried.

There was a vague memory in the back of his head that gently reminded him that Robin had asked for permission before carrying Wally. It just… it didn't make sense. Robin couldn't be here. Black Canary and Artemis should not have been working with Cheshire.  _Robin_  shouldn't have been working with Cheshire. Where was the rest of the Team? Where was Roy? Was… what was  _happening_?

He felt Robin stop, a gentle slow to the glide that Robin had been walking with. It was kind of soothingly rhythmic. Blinking at the change in speed, Wally started listening to what was going on around him. There weren't really many sounds. There had been Cheshire cursing and the sound of some people shuffling across from the heroes.

Blinking his eyes rapidly to convince them to stay open, Wally scrunched his nose at the pain, finally letting out the hiss of pain that had been building. He really hoped that this whole rescue thing worked out because Wally really, really didn't want to go back. It was probably bad that Wally was still skeptical on the merits of this rescue. Robin had seemed so earnest when he'd said that  _of course_  he came for Wally. Of course, they were going to rescue him. Why would Wally think any differently? Why could Wally not believe them?

Before his thoughts could slip back into hazy la-la land, a voice yanked him out. It was Cheshire. She asserted coldly, "Move or you will be killed."

A voice from across from the heroes called back, "There's a whole lot more of us than there are of you." Wally recognized Blaze's voice.

Unsurprisingly, his brother Satanus spoke next, "Maybe they figure themselves special since they're heroes. Well, most of them. Cheshire's a little too  _damaged_  to be a hero, isn't she?"

Another voice called out through the crowd, one Wally didn't recognize, "What's Robin got over his shoulder?" The woman's voice undulated between high and low registers. It was disorienting.

Robin shifted his hold a little bit on Wally, accidently shifting his shoulder into a tender rib. Wally gasped, body stiffening for a second. Robin stiffened too before backing quickly towards the middle of the girls and carefully rearranging Wally into a position where he could be quickly slid off of the teenage hero's shoulder and settled on the floor. Cheshire was talking with the other members of the Light, but Wally couldn't quite hear it. Sounds were shifting slightly, rushing by and splashing around the room. It wasn't right. It…

His eyes were starting to slip closed again. Robin's voice pulled them back open, "Hey, hey. Don't close those eyes again, okay? Are you good? I'd ask if I could get you anything, but I'm not sure there's anything nearby I could grab you."

Coughing, Wally attempted a smirk, "Rumor says… you and… Bats always have… have – stuff. In your… the belt."

Laughing softly, Robin brushed a bit of hair away from Wally's face (it had grown longer in his captivity) and said, "That's the rumor, yeah. Do you always believe rumors, though?"

"Certain people in… underworld…  _always_  have… best gossip. Normally right." Wally rasped. The conversation was grounding him, adding a sense of normalcy to the confusion that was this rescue and the experimentation and switching sides and Big Days. It was nice to have something normal.

Robin let out a small cackle, "Was that even English?"

"Don't even… judge." Wally huffed out, leaning his head back against the wall and letting his eyes slowly slip shut again.

Robin's hand on the side of his face pulled his reluctant eyes back open again, "Hey,  _Wally_ , please,  _please_  don't close your eyes, okay? We're almost done. We've just got to get through these goons and then we can get you to a safe place, okay? We can get you some medical attention."

Instead of complaining like he really wanted to, Wally nodded and forcibly kept his eyes open. After a second, his eyebrows crinkled, and he asked, "What goons? The Light doesn't have goons."

"The people who live in the dorm? They're the goons." Robin responded, head tilted to the side curiously.

One of Wally's hands came up and gripped onto Robin's shoulder, scrabbling for purchase so he could use the hero's shoulder as a point of leverage to get up. Robin's hands were desperately trying to push him down, the hero's voice soothing as he tried to keep Wally calm, "Whoa, Wally. None of that. You're too weak to stand up. We need you down here while we take care of these guys. Please don't try to get up. Hey. Wally!  _Wally, please_. Don't try to get up."

Wally was shaking his head, "Help me up. Help me up."

"No! Wally, c'mon, sit back down. Please?" Robin pleaded, expression twisted.

Wally hated himself for putting that expression on Robin's face, but this was important, "Robin. Help me… up. Help me up. I can… talk to them. Don't… hurt them. I can… help. Don't hurt them. They're not… goons. Good people – good… villains. Don't hurt them."

There was something desperate in that twisted expression that Robin wore, something that Wally didn't – couldn't – recognize, but it pulled at his soul in weird ways, making him feel like he should reciprocate to that level of vulnerability. It was disconcerting. Instead, though, Robin's expression smoothed out and the shorter teen switched position, settling underneath Wally's arm, a hand around the speedster's waist as Robin levered him into a standing position. Wally and Robin walked towards the front of the group. There was a hand momentarily tangled in the back of his shirt and Wally glanced behind him to see Artemis standing there with a hand outstretched and that same twisted expression on her face. Wally shook his head and Black Canary carefully pulled Artemis back.

It was impossible to tell what Cheshire thought of the whole thing with the mask over her face, but her muscles were tensed, weapons held firm in her hands.

Finally, Robin got Wally to the front of the group. The gathered villains in front of them gasped and hissed at the pitiful sight of Wally. Swallowing harshly, Wally tried to get his eyes to cooperate and stay open and watching the villains, "Hey… guys." He was winded from trying to get up, from staggering to the front of the group.

Blaze swallowed harshly, fists clenched and shaking at his side, "What did they do to you?" Satanus was silent beside him. The rest of the villains were staring in abject horror. Wally had to fight the smile that threatened to take over his face. These villains, the people that the rest of the world called scum and evil, cared about him, were horrified at what had happened to him.

Wally gathered his breath for his response, "What you probably didn't… know was that… Luthor had a thing called the… Everyman Project. He wanted to give humans… meta powers. When I was a kid… eleven years old… I was taken by Luthor for the… Everyman Project. Luthor needed to experiment on… metas to find out how our powers… worked. There were a lot of us being… experimented on there. I'm the only one who survived, the only one who… escaped. When Luthor saw that I had become… a Rogue, he… manipulated me into joining the Light… and letting myself get tests in the lab. When… I revealed the mole to the Team, he… said it was let myself get experimented… on again, or… die. I chose this. Because if I died, then so would… Icicle Jr. and… I couldn't do that to him. The Team is rescuing me. The scientists and… guards are probably… coming now." Wally panted, exhausted.

Blaze was shaking his head, unable to speak. After a glance at his brother, Satanus asked, "Are you joining them?"

Wally's forehead scrunched, "The… scientists?"

There was a chuckle through the group of villains and another person whose name was slipping Wally's mind at the moment called out, "Nah, the Team."

Reeling back slightly in horror, Wally said, " _No_. Why would you even think that? I'm a  _villain_." He sent them a confused glance that wasn't portraying nearly enough of the horror he was feeling.

Wally felt Robin flinch slightly underneath him but didn't have time to wonder at what that meant when Blaze was speaking again, "We were just checking, kid. Look, we're not happy with letting you go off with the  _heroes_ , but we also know that none of us would be able to look after you the way you need. So, a deal. We let you go, you let us go. It's probably too late for the idiots that went up against that other group of heroes you've got there but let us go."

There was a moment of silence. The heroes (plus Cheshire) were silent behind Wally, exchanging glances. Finally, Black Canary stepped forward and said, "We accept your proposal and…" She sent a look back at Wally, expression soft like he remembered it being from his time in the Team's HQ. Then she continued, "Thank you for looking after him."

Blaze still looked suspicious and concerned and slightly (ever so very slightly) scared, but he smirked and said, "Well, somebody's gotta. It's obvious he can't look after himself. Just… hurt him and we will find and kill  _all_  of you, got it?"

Wally couldn't help his snort and comment of, "Aw, you  _do_  care!*"

Blaze rolled his eyes, but still asked firmly, "Got it?"

It was Robin who answered, back straight from underneath Wally's arm and voice filled with steel, "Got it."

Blaze nodded and stepped back. The rest of the villains parted, sidling off to either side of the hallway. Robin carefully picked Wally back up, this time opting for bridal style (which Wally personally found less embarrassing then a fireman carry – be able to see everything and be in a semi-comfortable position, or have your butt in the carrier's face and your face in the carrier's butt). The two walked through the group, Black Canary in front of them. The scene reminded Wally of the last time he'd been paraded down a hallway. These villains had jeered at his father and called for Wally's freedom. Now they were letting him and the heroes go so Wally could get medical attention. This was why Wally loved being a villain.

Once the heroes were through the group of villains, they started moving faster. Wally heard Artemis talking into the comms behind them, "We've gotten through the other boarders. We're heading to the rendezvous point now. You ready?"

Wally didn't hear the response, but no one seemed unduly concerned, so Wally let himself sag back into the grip and finally relaxed his eyes, letting out a small sigh of relief as his eyes slipped close.

That didn't last for long before Cheshire was gently knocking the side of Wally head, "Eyes open speedster."

Wally groaned dramatically, "You don't know how long I've gone without sleep.  _I_ don't know how long I've gone without sleep. It's been a really long time and I've been through a really sucky experience and I'm in a lot of pain right now. Whatever monster drug they've been pumping through my veins is still slightly in there and it  _doesn't feel good_. I. Just. Want. To. Sleep." He was practically growling by the time he was done.

Robin's grip tightened slightly on Wally's body, his expression crumpling the tiniest bit. Cheshire, however, just snorted, "Man up."

Wally huffed again before pausing and asking curiously, "Cheshire? Why are you here? With the heroes?"

"Haven't you heard? I'm a hero now. Or, I guess, an antihero. I'm not going to stop killing because that's stupid." Cheshire responded. Wally could hear a smirk in her voice. He was a little too shell-shocked to react, though.

Artemis muttered loudly from behind them, "You would think that morals are stupid."

Wally glanced behind them to see that Artemis's lips were twisted and she was staring at Cheshire with something strange in her eyes, a hurt that was happy. It was almost like it simultaneously hurt and comforted her to see Cheshire.

Abruptly, Wally was reminded of the moment he had seen Cheshire's face. He was reminded of the sense of familiarity he had gotten. Looking back at Artemis, he suddenly realized what looked so familiar. No way. No way were Artemis and Cheshire related. Except, there was no denying the animosity between them that bordered on heartbreak. There was no denying the similar facial features. They had to be related.

Slowly, almost without him noticing, Wally's eyelids started to fall again. Robin jostled him slightly, gently, "None of that now. Stay with us Wally. Come on, start a conversation with us. You need to stay awake."

Wally resisted the urge to groan again. He  _knew_  that he needed to stay awake. It wasn't that easy, though! Instead, he just let out a little slip of air and asked, "You said something about Cameron missing me?"

Robin's expression brightened when Wally played along, "Yeah, he started messing Central City up until Flash went to get him. He helped us get the info necessary to storm this place. He's with the rest of the League right now."

Wally was shaking his head before Robin had finished speaking, "That's not right."

Cheshire's voice was dangerous when she asked, "What's not right? What's wrong Wally?"

"It's not right." He repeated, trying to figure out what it was that was striking him wrong about that statement. He furrowed his brow and repeated in a whisper, "It's not right."

Black Canary had moved up at that point and repeated Cheshire's question, "What's not right, Wally? Come on, you can tell us."

Wally was shaking his head at that point, "I don't know. There's… something wrong about that. It… doesn't feel right. I think I… heard something. When I was drugged? When I was being transported? I haven't… seen Icicle Jr. in a couple of days. They said… the guards said… I don't know! I don't  _know_!"

At some point, Wally's hands had tangled up in his hair and were clutching at it, pulling at the strands. Artemis's calloused fingertips gently worked Wally's hands out from his hair and she murmured gently, "It's okay. Take your time. We'll be back at HQ soon anyways. It's okay."

Wally shook his head but didn't verbally disagree. There was something nagging at him. It was important. It was about Cameron. What was  _happening_? There was something important.

He lost any train of thought he might have had when the group walked into a room and were met with a cacophony of noise. Wally flinched back, hands making an aborted movement towards his head. Roy's voice cut through the noise, "Shut up!" Slowly, Wally's fingers uncurled from the claw-like movement they had stopped in.

He blinked at the people around him. It was the Team with Black Canary, Cheshire, and Roy. They were all there, staring at him. He shook his head, cringing back a little bit into Robin's chest. Roy quickly moved towards them, crouching down next to Wally, "You okay there?"

Wally nodded, "Yeah, I'm cool. You guys are lucky I was there, by the way. Your little rescue team would be dead meat without me."

Roy snorted, "Somehow I doubt that."

Robin cackled above them, "Actually, Wally was the one who convinced the boarders to let us go without a fight."

Roy shook his head, "Even half-dead you can still talk people into doing whatever it is you want them to. I swear, speed isn't actually your super power. It's your powers of persuasion."

"Isn't that why you hired me in the first place? Or was it just my sparkling personality?" Wally grinned.

Snorting again, Roy commented, "I hired you because you had just left the Rogues and was sitting alone and pitiful in an alleyway." Wally stuck his tongue out, cheeks heating as the gathered heroes gave him a strange look.

Roy shook his head and rolled his eyes before saying, "Alright, let's get out of here. We'll get you back to HQ and get you all patched up. We'll take down the rest of the Light while you're healing."

Suddenly, Wally sat up ramrod straight in Robin's arms, almost causing the hero to drop him. Wally finally figured out what was wrong, "Icicle Jr.! We can't go back to the League!"

Cheshire was next to Wally in an instant, actually pushing Roy out of the way, "What are you talking about, Wally? What's wrong?"

Wally was shaking his head, hands shaking too, "The guards! I was asking the scientists why I… hadn't been to see Cameron because I was… supposed to see him every other day, but I hadn't seen him. And then… the guards said that Cameron was on a  _mission_." Cheshire reeled back and stared at him wide-eyed. Wally finished quietly, "On that car ride back here, Cameron and I agreed to never trust the heroes. We said that we'd get out of here together, on our own because the heroes couldn't be trusted to do it themselves. That's why it didn't sit right with me that Cameron had gone to the heroes. He would have hinted towards it to me. He would have checked that I was okay. I think he's doing this for the Light in a last-ditch attempt to get me out. Maybe he thinks that they'll stop experimenting. Maybe… I don't know… He's not working for you guys, though! He's working for the Light."

Roy stared at him for a second before cursing loudly and planting his fist in the wall. The other heroes looked horrified, a painted expression of shock freezing over their faces.

Miss Martian whispered, "What do we do?"

Superboy answered, "I don't know."

Everyone turned towards Roy and Cheshire. They were staring at each other, obviously having some sort of conversation between them that no one else could read. Eventually, Cheshire nodded, and Roy took a deep, calming breath before announcing, "Okay. We're going to head off to Central. Theoretically, Flash, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern will still be fighting the Rogues and we'll be able to at least get them as back up. Then, we'll storm HQ and see what's going on. Good?" The rest of the younger heroes nodded at Roy, finally getting some of their resolve back now that there was a concrete plan in place. Black Canary smiled proudly at Roy and the ruby archer gave her a tight grin back.

The group moved towards the exit, keeping an eye out for any stragglers that were still hanging around the building. Miraculously, the group didn't run into anyone.

They kept moving once they had gotten outside, running from patch of shelter to patch of shelter. The group was silent, but they were moving in such tandem that Wally had to assume that there was some other form of communication between them. Finally, they reached a small little shed. Roy split the group into three different groups. He sent a group into the shed and there was a bright flash of light before Roy sent in the next group – the one Wally was in. Wally blinked when they got into the shed. He muttered, "They're gone."

Raising an eyebrow, Robin snorted, "You do realize that you were in a zeta beam before, right? The thing you used to escape our headquarters? That's what this is."

Wally raised an eyebrow back, "The ones at your HQ are cooler than this one is." Robin cackled in response.

And then there was another bright flash of light and everything disappeared. A pictosecond later, they were in an alleyway in Central City. Wally recognized it as one that he had claimed as his own for a little bit before the cops had started hanging around the area. Apparently, there had been a drug ring a building or so down and Wally had really not wanted to get caught up in that mess.

Soon, the rest of the group of heroes had gone through the zeta beam and they were all in Central City. Before they started to move, Wally impatiently pushed on Robin's chest. Robin looked down at him, "What's up?"

"Let me down." Wally said stubbornly.

Roy commented from behind them, "No."

Wally scowled, "I can walk now. It's fine."

Cheshire threw over her shoulder, "You were just experimented on for days. You are not getting up and walking around."

Artemis added, "You'd just slow us down."

Miss Martian smiled sweetly, "You really should just be resting."

Superboy grunted, "If Robin's arms are getting tired, I can carry you."

Aqualad threw in, "It is unnecessary for you to walk at the moment."

Rocket and Zatanna added at the same time, "It's fine."

Black Canary smiled serenely and repeated, "Like Artemis said, you really would slow us down."

Wally groaned, "I would not slow you down! Speedster, remember? Even exhausted and tired and experimented on, I'm pretty sure I can go a whole lot faster than you. Which speaking of being a speedster, ever heard of speed healing? Because that's a thing that's currently happening. Because I'm a speedster."

Rolling his eyes and sighing aggressively, Roy said, "Fine, let him down. If only so he'll stop complaining."

Wally put on a smug smile as he was gently lowered to the point where his feet were on the ground. Shakily, Wally stood. He kept still for a moment, aware of the eyes of the others on him, ready to catch him if he started to fall. When he was sure that he wasn't going to keel over just by standing, he started walking forward, slowly and carefully. He took a couple of deep breaths as he walked. Okay, this wasn't so bad. He had a hand out to the side, stretched out so it was almost brushing the wall as he walked. He would use it to catch himself if he started tilting.

He had almost reached the end of the alleyway when a hand slipped into the one that was near the wall. Startled, Wally glanced over to see that it was Robin. The shorter male had grabbed Wally's hand and was currently slinging it around his neck. Robin smiled slightly, "You were doing pretty well, but you were about to run out of wall. Figured we'd just make this easier." Wally smiled in thanks.

The group started forward again, a brisk pace through Central in the late afternoon. There weren't that many people out, but they were all gawking at the large group of heroes. Luckily, Wally was mainly hidden between the rest of them, only a flash of pale skin or bright red hair peaking out at the shocked citizens of Central.

Finally, they made it to City Hall. Wally peered around them in confusion. The yard was  _wrecked_  and there were smoking craters in the building itself. Wally raised an eyebrow, "Well, you can definitely tell that there was a fight here."

"There's supposed to  _still_  be a fight here." Roy scowled.

"If Icicle Jr. really is working for the Light, then he probably got the rest of the League members to get back to HQ. Probably didn't want to risk us figuring something out and using these Leaguers to help us." Robin surmised.

Wally shrugged, trying to keep casual, "Icicle probably didn't get the Rogues back up to your guys' HQ, though."

The rest of the group stared at him. Miss Martian slapped her forehead. Cheshire asked, "Do you know where they are?"

Wally shrugged again, "I know several places they  _could_  be. I mean, they've got a lot of safehouses. After this kind of battle, they'd go to one that was farther away. Since this is a big mission thing, they'll go to one that only, like, the Flash knows about. So, I know the one they're the  _most likely_  to go to, but who really knows? I've been away for a long time."

"You going to be okay to talk to them?" Robin asked carefully, nothing but compassion coloring his tone and expression. No pity, no judgement. It was nice.

"Doesn't really matter, does it? We've got to go to them no matter what to get their help. It doesn't really matter if I'm bothered by it or not. Besides, they know better than to mix family with heists. We won't let any of that kind of stuff distract us until the job is done." Wally responded, taking a deep breath while they had stopped moving.

"It is decided. We are going to go find the Rogues." Aqualad announced.

Wally coughed on his surprise, "No, no, no.  _You guys_  aren't coming. I'm not going to bring  _heroes_  to an otherwise undiscovered safe house! What kind of villain do you think I am?"

Robin stared at him, "Wait, you're not seriously going to go to them alone, are you?"

"Do you see any other villains here?" Wally asked. Why were they so surprised? Did they not understand the meaning of safe house?

"We can't just let you run off!" Artemis all but shouted.

"Wally, it's dangerous for you out there. You're injured, and the Light is going to be after you. We can't just let you wander around the city by yourself." Black Canary tried to explain.

Wally shook his head, "Look, I know you guys are trying to help, but this is serious. I will  _not_  give away our  _home_  to a bunch of heroes. That's not your business. Villains get caught and when they get caught, they lose their secret identity. What we don't lose? Our safe houses. Our  _homes_. A villain's home is the equivalent of a hero's secret identity. Don't you dare take that from me."

The group stared at him, caught off-guard by the seriousness and the actual statement itself. Roy clenched his jaw, "We're just trying to help."

"I know. But please, let me do this myself." Wally said, expression as serious as he could manage it.

After a second where Roy and Cheshire shared another long glance, Roy sighed and said, "Okay. Okay, do this by yourself. We'll be waiting here."

Sending the group a terse nod, Wally smiled and  _ran_.


	60. Light On

WWWWWW

Wally was more than a little tense when he finally made it to the safe house. It warmed his heart more than it should have to see that they had a little light on above one of the windows. It was the code that said that there was currently at least one Rogue occupying the safe house. The only time there wasn't a light up there when there was someone home was when all the Rogues were already at the house. They still considered him a part of the Rogues, considered him worth the effort to keep the light out, to lead him home.

Closing his eyes and breathing in, Wally grabbed the lock and flipped it open. Inside was a scanner with all of their fingerprints imprinted in it. He fitted his finger to the scanner and waited for it to recognize him. He heard the lock disengage and tensed, eyes closing again. He could do this. He  _could_  do this. Wally faltered momentarily, hand on the handle, ready to go in, but not. It had been over a month, almost two since he'd last seen the Rogues. He'd left them, abandoned them to join the Light when all the Light did was tear him down and experiment on him and try to make him into a monster. Wally had left the Rogues, accused them of leaving him, of abandoning him and not having the strength to see him off himself. He'd done all of this to himself and now he needed to go see the Rogues and ask them for help. They needed to stop the Light first and then figure everything out afterwards.

Wally pushed the door open, shaking. He wasn't sure if he was scared of their reactions or shaking from exhaustion (he hadn't been kidding when he'd said that it had been a long time since he'd slept; he really shouldn't have been doing this much this soon after being experimented on). It was probably both.

Whether or not he was scared of seeing their reactions before he went in didn't really matter, though, because he was definitely scared of their reactions when he saw them. The second he had pushed the door all the way open, he'd been greeted by an array of guns ranging from heat to cold to mirror to flute.

Partially subconsciously, Wally flinched back, hands naturally raising to shield himself. There were noises from the men inside the hallway: startled noises, sad ones. He heard the sound of guns disengaging and slowly lowered his hands, peaking out over his fingertips to see the Rogues staring at him in blatant shock.

Sam whispered brokenly, "Wally…"

Suddenly, Wally became aware of how much of a mess he must look. His hair and body were intermittently washed, but it had been a day or two and stress made them oilier than they normally would have been. There were bruises and wounds in various stages of healing all across his body. He knew that some of his bones were still twisted kind of strangely from where they didn't quite heal right. His clothes were basically rags, blood dotted across the sides of his shirt closest to where his hands had been chained, the bottom of his pants sprinkled in the same material. There were rips and tears in the cloth, more blood spotted here and there. He must have looked awful.

Wally swallowed around his nerves, not quite able to muster up a smile, "Hey."

Hartley's hands were held out slightly from his side, like he wanted to hug Wally, but wasn't sure if it would hurt him. James had a wonderstruck expression on his face, eyes clear like he was having a moment of clarity (and Wally could only pray to something he didn't believe in that this was a moment of clarity). Mark was clutching both of his arms in a sad hug, eyes big and haunted. Digger had reached out to grab Sam's arm, the other one in a shaking fist by his side. Mick was looking at Wally like the speedster was a flash of fire after a month without the smallest spark.

Len was the only one who looked mainly unruffled. There was a tiny bit of pain on his face when he glanced at Wally, eyes trailing over every injury, "I thought they were going to bring you to someone to help heal you."

Wally winced, "Yeah, well, something went wrong."

"You know I don't like those words." Len said. He was treating the moment like everything was normal and Wally wasn't sure if he was thankful or not.

Taking a deep breath, Wally started to explain the situation, "Icicle Jr. is still working for the Light. He cut short your battle and we believe he's taken JL HQ over completely. We took the Light headquarters, but that doesn't really help all that much when the big players aren't there. We need your help to defeat the rest of the Light."

Mick clenched his jaw, "There is no  _we_ , here.  _You_  will stay home and recover no matter what we decide." Various other Rogues nodded in agreement.

Wally clenched his jaw and shook his head, "No. I helped make this mess. I'm going to fix it."

"You've just been experimented on, Wally!" Hartley shouted, something almost hysterical in his voice, "You can't go around fighting  _the Light_! You'll get yourself killed!"

"What do you think I did the first time I escaped?" Wally exploded, eyes flashing with lightning, "I ran from the Light's lab all the way to Shanghai and was attacked by some meta haters. I fought them off and then ran over to Spain! I got in the middle of a gang shootout. I ran to Ecuador then! There was no one to patch me up or help me then and I'd been in the lab for  _two years_. I can handle this now!" He was breathing harshly by the end of his rant, legitimately shaking by this point. The shaking was definitely from exhaustion now. Maybe he shouldn't fight this so strongly. But he had to. He hadn't lied when he'd said that it was his fault that they were in this mess and he was going to clean up his own mess. Ugh, this was not how he wanted this to go. A shouting match was not the sort of reunion he'd been looking for. He had to clench his fists to stop tears from falling. He just wanted to fix this. He wanted to be out of this mess. He wanted a moment in his life where he could be happy without some sort of repercussion or struggle.

Len must have seen some of that written into the lines of Wally's face because he raised a hand to stop anyone from talking and said, "We're going to talk about this, okay Wally? Right now, though, you need a shower and some fresh clothes. Mick will set up something for you to eat and we'll all be in the kitchen when you're done. Are there any wounds that you need our help with?"

Wally shook his head wordlessly. He knew how to rebreak and set his bones. He would do that quickly after the shower. Len let out a sigh of relief and then said gently, "Hartley and James are going to go upstairs with you. Call out if you need anything while you're in the shower, okay?" Wally nodded, starting to calm down a little bit. That was one of the best parts about Len; he was practically impossible to stress out and his calm collection was what got everyone else through hard times.

Hartley finally reached all the way out and grabbed Wally's arm lightly, shifting until Wally was leaning against him. Wally could see that the rest of them were concerned by how little of a fight he was putting up after his explosion, but he couldn't help it. He really did just need a quick shower.

He felt a little bad that the heroes would be sitting there, worrying and wondering what happened to him, but there was only so much he could do. He wasn't a miracle worker and he really was so tired.

Quickly and mechanically, Wally stripped and started showering. Hartley had gotten out some fresh clothes for him and set them on the bathroom shower. Wally couldn't wait until he was in them instead of the lab clothes that he was pretty sure were being burned at the moment. It would be nice wearing something that felt like him instead of whatever the scientists had decided to put on him. And it was nice being in a shower, feeling the water gently cascade down his back instead of a hose being jetted at him, cold or hot or whatever it happened to be at the moment.

Wally felt himself start to shake more as the moment caught up to him. This was real. He had escaped. It didn't feel real. Last time, his escape had felt so much more important, more real. Probably because there was a gradual change. He hadn't made up any of those things he'd said about what happened. It had been from running to fighting to running to fighting to running. There had been no moment of relief, of feeling like he was safe. His first escape had been from a known danger into an unknown one and he'd never really settled and felt like he could relax. Relaxation on the streets got you killed. But now? He was rescued by the Team. He hadn't needed to run for his life and be his own scout and backup and bodyguard. He'd been protected and led, and it had been perfect. And now he was with the Rogues and it was just so  _surreal_. The difference between escaping and being rescued were viscerally different.

Wally shook his head, turning the shower off and stepping out, wrapping a soft towel around himself and trying to not melt into the material. He needed to focus and get his head on straight. There were things for him to do and he couldn't let himself get distracted. The more distracted he was, the less chance there was going to be for the Rogues to let him try to defeat the Light.

Once he had tended to his wounds and dressed, he stepped out into his bedroom. Hartley and James were sitting there, watching the door anxiously. He tried another smile, partially succeeding this time, "Miss me?"

Hartley, predictably, scowled, " _Way_  too soon for jokes."

Wally shrugged, "You know me. I make jokes as a defense mechanism."

Closing his eyes, Hartley took a deep, shuddering breath. He held it for a moment before letting it go and repeating the process. Then he opened his eyes and patted the bed next to him. Wally scooted onto the bed, letting the leg that was currently in a splint hang off the end. Hartley hugged him suddenly, James coming in and doing the same from behind. Wally tensed for a moment, breath whooshing away in fear, but he got over it quickly enough. He wasn't there anymore. This wasn't the surreal dream that he was all too sure that it was. He was out. It was okay.

Hartley let go after a beat (James continued to cling to Wally's back and Wally allowed it since the older teen wasn't hurting anything at the moment) and looked Wally in the eye, "I know this really isn't the time. Not when the Light is still out there and still powerful, but I want you to hear this before anything happens. We would  _never_  abandon you.  _Never_. Nothing you said made us abandon you. We never abandoned you. We still think of you as family no matter what happened to you or what you've done. Okay?" Hartley had gone a little teary eyed during his speech and Wally felt himself develop a lump in his throat. After a second, Hartley pressed, "Okay?" Wally nodded, unable to speak.

Letting out another long, shuddering breath, Hartley whispered, "Okay." Then he wrapped his arms around Wally again, just sitting there.

They weren't like that long (Wally soaking in the positive contact he had been craving since the beginning of his time with the scientists) until Sam called from downstairs, "Into the kitchen, guys!"

James hollered, "OKAY!" back and sped out of the room, almost knocking Wally off the bed in the process.

Hartley caught Wally, the two of them sharing a panicked expression for the briefest of moments before they burst out laughing. James really would never change, would he? And Wally would love him for it anyways.

As the other two kid Rogues went downstairs at a more leisurely pace, Hartley rubbed one of his ears and muttered lowly, "I hate it when he does that."

"It's his way of showing that he doesn't care that you need hearing aids?" Wally offered with a shrug. Hartley just rolled his eyes and continued rubbing at his ear.

Eventually the two of them made it to the kitchen/dining room area. Digger started frowning when he saw the fingers that were taped together and the wrist and leg that were splinted. He didn't say anything, though, simply sitting down at the table like nothing was wrong.

Mick plopped an assortment of foods down in front of Wally and grunted, "Eat."

Len rolled his eyes and expanded on the statement, "Like the last few times we've had to do something like this, you will eat your food and you won't say anything until we finish talking? Understood?" He paused and waited for Wally to nod and start in on his food before saying, "Good. I'm sure Hartley has already covered this with you, but we want you to understand that we never wanted you gone. We would have had to talk about things the next day, but we never would have kicked you out for what has happened to you and what you've done. We still need to talk to you about all of that but, obviously, this isn't the time. Nod if you're alright with everything I've said so far."

Honestly? For a moment, Wally paused and slowed time down a little bit. He kept eating because he was hungry, and Mick was a good cook. Was he alright with everything that Len had said? Wally felt awful for it, but he still wasn't entirely certain that he could trust the idea that the Rogues wanted to keep him. For a while, his self-esteem and his willingness to trust had increased. The Rogues had made everything easier, brighter. Then the whole spell that split the world into an adult world and a kid world happened and it wasn't so easy to trust, so easy to believe in himself anymore. The world went back to that same place where everyone left him at some point or another for some reason or another. Then he had his time with the Light and, somehow, they managed to help too. The people there that he talked to were nice and he enjoyed everything he learned. His time at the Light before things went way downhill weren't bad. It was a good experience, honestly. Then the Light betrayed him too. Every inch he had gained on his self-confidence and trusting nature were gone, lost in the betrayal.

In the end, the Rogues were probably the only people who have stood by him since he first met them. Wally couldn't think of a single time that the Rogues had really let him down. They had been understanding and kind and perfect in every single way. They never abandoned him, and they never let him go. And that was hard to comprehend. How could it not be? The idea of someone being good through and through was a hard pill to swallow. For a long,  _long_  time, there would always be the idea in the back of his mind that would try to convince him that the Rogues were still going to abandon him.

He couldn't think like that, though. For once in his life, Wally was going to place his trust in someone. He was going to place his trust in these Rogues who were helping him before they even really knew him. They were his family and he wasn't going to forego that. He was going to take that leap of faith and trust them.

So, Wally let time speed back up and he nodded to Len. There were small sighs of relief around the room, people thankful that he had been willing to trust them. Wally's was among them.

Len nodded back and said, "Alright. Now that that's cleared up, let's go to the main point of this conversation. We are letting you fight this battle with the following conditions: you follow our orders exactly, you do not engage with someone who we deem above your skill level at your current state of injured, and you stay with at least one other person throughout the entire battle. Nod if you understand that." Wally nodded immediately. He was painfully aware of his own limitations. He knew that he was injured and probably a little bit in shock and definitely exhausted. He knew that he really shouldn't be fighting any sort of battle in the shape he was in, knew that he'd probably only be dead weight. But he needed this. He needed to be able to fight back against the Light and take them down once and for all. He needed to do this with his own will and see this with his own eyes. They had been taking from him since he was eleven, taking from him and destroying him. It was time he finally got his revenge.

Len nodded again and directed his attention to the entirety of the group, "Suit up, boys. We're going to go take on the Light."


	61. To Win

WWWWWW

Wally was the last one out of the mirror. He was a little hesitant about this whole thing, honestly. Hartley had told him that the Rogues had been working with the League and the Team to get him out of the Light's labs and that the Rogues had even been working with Robin at one point, but it was still kind of messed up for Wally. The  _Rogues_  and the  _Team_  wanted to work together? That didn't seem right. They hated each other. Heroes and villains. It wasn't right.

After Wally had confided his misgivings to Len, the older villain had given him a look. Not his usual why-are-you-so-unbelievably-and-aggravatingly-stupid look, but one that had something deeper buried beneath the cold blue, one that was dark and dangerous and so much wiser than Wally could ever hope to be. Len had simply responded, "There are shades of grey, kid." And then he'd turned away, grabbing his gun and walking towards the mirror, leaving Wally staring after him, heart aching for reasons he didn't understand. Shades of grey? Wally wasn't sure he believed in those anymore.

Eventually, he took the courage to make the last couple steps out of the mirror, Mirror Master helping him out and letting the mirror shimmer back into it's solid form. Together, the Rogues walked towards the Team, backs straight and heads held tall.

Red Arrow's lips twisted in displeasure when he saw Momentum, "What is he doing here? You can't seriously be thinking about letting him fight!"

He had addressed his anger at the Rogues, but it was Cheshire who answered, mask hiding anything she might have been feeling, but voice conveying a layer of understanding, "He needs to be here. This is his fight too."

Surprisingly – it probably surprised everyone, honestly, with the hostility that the two had shown each other constantly – it was Artemis who immediately agreed, "They hurt him and did awful things to him. Don't you think it's only fair for him to close this part of his life for himself? To fight for freedom from his past?" Cheshire turned her head, a quick intake of breath displaying the shock that her mask covered.

Red Arrow glanced around the group of superheroes, trying to find a face that commiserated with him. He was unsuccessful. Red Arrow shook his head and clenched his jaw, "This is unbelievable. You can't tell me that he's fit to fight."

"He can at least do some damage." Captain Cold drawled easily, "He has rules to follow: follow our orders exactly, do not engage with someone above his skill level, and stay with at least one other person at all times. We've talked it over and he'll follow those rules."

Wally felt a little bit like he was at the principal's office with his parents. It was like he'd gotten in trouble and his parents were assuring the principal that he had learned his lesson and there wouldn't be any repeats. Wally wasn't entirely certain where that comparison came from since he'd never actually been in trouble with the principal, but he felt like it was pretty accurate either way. He'd feel embarrassed, but he was honestly too drained to even care at the moment. No matter what he felt about it, the method worked, and Red Arrow reluctantly nodded his head, giving the go ahead for Wally to fight.

Wally closed his eyes for a moment, infinitely grateful. He wasn't sure what would have happened if he'd been denied. The Rogues probably wouldn't have been amused. Wally definitely wouldn't have stayed behind, though. There was no chance of this. Artemis had explained it perfectly. This was the end. This was his chance to put everything bad behind him. He could focus on the family he had now, getting closer to the Rogues and, hopefully, eventually trusting them completely. Maybe he could even start trying to get closer to Robin. And he wouldn't really mind continuing his work with Red Arrow. Maybe. That was hard to think about at the moment. The point was, he wasn't sure how fully he could dedicate himself to his present and the future he could build if he was still stuck in that traumatic past. Wally just wanted to let go of it all and finally be free. That was all that mattered to him.

He hadn't realized that he'd zoned out until there was a hand gently touching his elbow. Startled, Wally jerked back, superspeed almost overbalancing him, but he managed to catch himself, just stumbling back a few spaces, eyes wild and hands held in a protective stance. The whites of Robin's mask had widened, gloved hand still outstretched from where he'd brushed it against Wally's elbow.

The whole group was staring at the two of them now. Captain Boomerang had come around Wally's side, making sure he was seen before tucking the speedster under his arm, asking quietly, "Ya good mate?" Wally nodded, words not quite able to make it past his rapidly beating heart.

Robin's voice was practically a whisper when he said, "Sorry. I didn't… mean to startle you. I just… I wanted to talk. Sorry."

Wally was shaking his head before he finished, "No, it's not your fault! That was on me, sorry. Still a little skittish. My bad." He nervously inched out from under Boomerang's arm, raising a hand behind his head and scratching at his neck, face burning. God, he was such a mess. Wow.

Robin responded quickly, too, expression pinched, "It's not your fault either! That's totally not your fault. I totally get it that you're a little chalant right now. It's fine. We're good. We, uh, can talk about it later. It's all good. Let's just… forget about that."

"Yep." Wally said, nodding rapidly, "Yep, that sounds good. Already forgotten."

Red Arrow was staring at them incredulously, "You are both  _idiots_."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I agree with  _Speedy_  over there." Captain Cold stated, eyebrows raised. Wally wasn't sure what he thought he saw, but whatever it was amused Cold a little bit. Wally felt a little miffed.

Apparently not as miffed as Red Arrow. Roy snarled, "I am  _not_  Speedy anymore!" Then he took a deep breath, pinching his nose and pausing for a moment. Then he opened his eyes again and sighed, "Let's just run through the plan one more time, okay? We're going to win."


	62. A Kiss

WWWWWW

The plan was pretty easy to remember. It was easy to remember because there really wasn't a plan at all. How could there be? They didn't know what Icicle Jr. had done. They didn't know who was at the Watchtower and who was just waiting at home. They didn't know if people were compromised and in what way they would be compromised. They didn't know if there was a hostage situation. They didn't know  _anything_. Therefore, they had to simultaneously prepare for everything and nothing. Honestly, it all kind of went above Wally's head. Sure, he could pick pocket with the best of them and he was great at following orders and adapting quickly when the orders fell through or something went wrong with the plan, but he wasn't quite to the point of creating strategies yet. The Rogues had been training him to be a heist leader someday, but he hadn't gotten that far by the time he'd left them.

So, he was leaving this to the Rogues, Cheshire, and Roy. He'd trust their judgement. Anything they created was either going to completely fall apart or be the perfect, most terrifying strategy in existence. Which one of those it was remained to be seen.

Robin shifted slightly next to Wally and the speedster's mind was thrown back to the moment a couple of minutes earlier when Robin had tried to talk to him and he'd freaked out. What had Robin wanted to say? Wally frowned, absentmindedly rubbing at his wrists.

Robin glanced over, and Wally's eyes widened, cheeks darkening as he realized that he'd been caught staring. Robin raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on that, instead looking down and frowning at Wally's hands, "Is there something wrong with your wrist?"

"Huh?" Wally asked, tilting his head before realizing that he was wrapping the fingers of one hand around the wrist of the other and twisting them repeatedly. Wally couldn't look Robin in the eyes when he answered, "After a point, cuffs start to feel normal. My wrists feel kind of bare without them, so I'm just… having something there makes them feel less bare. It's stupid."

"It's not stupid." Robin argued immediately, head tilting up to meet Wally mask to mask. Wally suddenly had an aching need to see what Robin was like beneath the mask, beneath the sunglasses. Wally wanted to look Robin in the eye, to bare his soul with their eyes meeting. He wanted to know this person he was so helplessly falling for.

Instead, Wally glanced down at the ground, rubbing one hand behind his neck like he always did when he was flustered. What was he thinking? A hero showing him their secret identity? Ridiculous. Based on how Robin was dressed (with those sunglasses firmly covering a large portion of his face) when he had been hanging out at the park with the rest of the Team, they didn't even know his real identity. Why on earth would Wally be the one to find it out? He was a villain and he was a mess and he wasn't worth giving up that kind of secret.

Unwillingly, Wally's mind threw itself back to when Roy revealed his identity in order to get Wally to trust him. Roy gave up his identity for Wally. Why couldn't Robin do the same thing? Was it really so strange to think that they might get that close?

Wally inwardly shook his head. Who was he kidding? Roy was a mole working for the Light and he was a clone. God, Wally hadn't even told anyone that yet. He hadn't said a thing to anyone about that fact. Had Cheshire mentioned it to Roy? They seemed to be getting close and she was permanently joining the heroes. No, that wouldn't be right. There was no way that Roy would be this calm if he knew that he was a clone. There was no way that he'd be acting so calm around Wally if he knew that the speedster had known the truth about him this entire time and hadn't said anything. Wally was the worst kind of friend.

He hadn't even told Roy that he was a clone and yet he believed that he could be worthy of obtaining Robin's identity? What sort of messed up logic was that? That was all sorts of wrong. He didn't deserve anything like that. He didn't deserve to get the guy. He didn't deserve to get the happy ending. He's hurt every single person who ever cared about him and he had the gall to blame others for it. Now he was standing here, lying to one of the people he cared about most, harboring definitely unreturned feelings for another. Icicle Jr. was up in the Watchtower doing something bad because he'd been trying to help Wally.

All Wally had managed to do, his entire life, was mess things up. He screwed everything up. This was all his fault. Every bad thing that had happened had been because of him. If he'd been stronger, smarter,  _better_ , they wouldn't have these problems. Everything would have been solved! Nothing would be going wrong! This whole situation could have been avoided.

Now? People were going to get hurt because he was selfish and idiotic and cruel. His actions had led them here and he barely had the strength to put up the tiniest fight. He would have to rely on others to fight this battle for him even though he was the one who caused it. He would have to rely on others to fix his mistakes. He was an awful person and a horrible friend and a worse family member. He couldn't do anything right.

"Kid?" Len's voice finally broke Wally out of his haze.

Blinking slightly, Wally looked around him to see that Len had led him and the Rogues a little way away from the Team. It looked like the groups were splitting up to discuss the specifics of their plans. Wally hummed, "Yeah?"

"We weren't sure if you were with us. You kind of spaced out for a moment there." Hartley said, expression tightening with worry.

Wally opened his mouth, probably to say something like he was fine, or that it was all good. His usual response when he didn't want to talk about it. Instead, Len interrupted him, staring into Wally's mask, "Nothing that has happened is your fault."

Some of the other members frowned and glanced up, startled. Wally wrinkled his nose and scowled, "I'm starting to think you have some sort of mind reading powers that you're not telling us about." There was no use denying it. Besides, hadn't Wally thought earlier that he wanted to trust them more? Then again, after everything he just thought of…

Mick scowled, "No, you just have a bad poker face. We need to fix that before we bring you to the casinos."

Len sent Mick a confused look before shaking his head and turning back to Wally, "He's right about one thing, kid. You've never been all that good at hiding what you're feeling. Not from us at least. None of this is your fault. Got that?"

"You don't know everything that happened." Wally immediately protested.

"I don't need to." Len answered firmly, "I know  _you_ , kid, and that's all that matters. Okay?" He looked at Wally's unchanged expression and sighed, "You've gone through a lot. The kind of stuff you went through can cause drastic mood swings and destructive behavior. Whatever awful thoughts you're thinking about yourself are wrong. That's just the trauma speaking."

Wally's jaw clenched, "Then how do you explain the awful thoughts I've been having pretty much my entire life?"

"Extended trauma." Len responded flatly, "Wally, your entire life has been extended trauma. Your life has pretty much always sucked. It's easy to get sucked into negative thoughts when life seems to be only made of bad things. Trust me when I say I understand that much. With my past, I don't see how I couldn't understand. You've been put down from day one and every single thing you've done has ended in bad things and pain for you and the people around you. It's easy to see where you'd think that these things were your fault. And maybe you made mistakes. Maybe you screwed up. You can't sit there and blame yourself,  _hate_  yourself for those mistakes. You just have to own up to them and fix them. Don't let these bad experiences poison you, especially not when you're so close to finally being happy. Okay kid?"

Wally bit his lip, "There are some problems I don't know how to fix."

"And that's okay, too. That's what friends and family are here for. We're here to help you with that. Don't leave us in the dark while you suffer, while you're crushed under the weight of your secrets. We get it if you don't tell all of us, but at least tell someone. Let someone help you." Sam pleaded, a weary slump to his shoulders that was only there because Wally had joined the family, had come to this place, had ruined these people's lives.

As if he could sense that he wasn't getting anywhere at the moment, Len closed his eyes and let one hand fall heavily on Wally's shoulder, at once a steady, comforting weight and also an unyielding pressure. Len opened his eyes and sighed, "Alright. Everyone got their parts memorized? Kid, you got your rules memorized? Repeat them back to me."

Wally wanted to sigh, but this wasn't the time and he was honestly too done with this to start a fight. He dutifully parroted, "Follow your orders exactly. Do not engage with someone above my skill level – which is basically every single person there, by the way. Stay with at least one person at all times."

"Good. Stick to those and this will be over quickly." Len said, patting Wally's shoulder once before removing his hand. Wally wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or sad.

"Man, I hope it's over with quickly. I'm so done with the Light right about now." Mark complained, stretching his arms out over his head. Wally wrinkled his nose. Fat chance about being done with the Light. It was like he's said in the car to Cameron: the Light was prepared for this whether the League won or lost. There was something bigger happening, farther down the line. Still, it didn't really help if Wally didn't know a thing about it. Maybe if he'd done his job better, been more trustworthy within the organization, been less naïve and investigated himself while he had the chance…

Roy's voice startled him, "You don't think it'll be over quickly." The rest of the Rogues glanced between the heroes and Wally.

Wally frowned, "You don't know what it's like working for them."

Roy interrupted, "Unfortunately, I do."

"Ah, yeah, sorry. Forgot. I mean, I didn't  _forget_ , I just… Yeah. Anyways, you don't know what it's like remembering to work for them. The Light is always prepared. When they were going with the original course of action, their plan worked no matter what. It worked if they defeated the League. It worked if the League defeated them. There were plans in place for every contingency. The big plan wasn't supposed to really start until  _years_  from now. They're in this for the long haul. I mean, do you guys even know what their big goal is?  _Why_  they're doing what they're doing?"

The heroes frowned and glanced between them, shifting slightly as they stood. The Rogues were no better, staring at each other in confusion. It was Cheshire who answered, "They want to make everyone see "the Light." They believe that the evolution of humankind is being hindered by "heroes" that protect it from the needed factors to evolve. They believe that heroes are stopping humanity from becoming strong enough to survive in this ever-harsher universe. They're trying to make sure that the rest of the world sees that too."

Superboy's expression twisted, "They believe that? Then why did they create me? I was there to defeat and replace Superman if that eventuality was ever needed. Why build me if they didn't believe in superheroes?"

Miss Martian put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Robin answered with a shrug, "Maybe they thought that a different kind of superhero was needed, one that would save people, but still allow for the "needed factors" so we could evolve? Something like that? When we capture them, we'll ask, okay buddy?" Superboy nodded, expression molding into something less delicate and more assured.

"You think they managed to scramble together a plan like that after they realized that they couldn't use me?" Roy asked skeptically.

"They have a large number of some of the most intelligent and driven villains among their leadership. I completely believe that the Light could create a plan like that in the time they had." Black Canary responded, lips pursed.

Cheshire nodded in agreeance, "I was never high enough in the organization to know what it was that they planned in the end. The end goal was for the main council only. Even myself, Sportsmaster, Black Manta, etc. weren't allowed to know. But what Wally said is correct. They win no matter what we do. I think, however, that this would be easier if we were to win this battle. Hopefully we can circumvent whatever it is they've planned."

Wally had stopped listening partway through her speech. What Black Canary had said was true; the Light was created of some of the most intelligent villains put together. Still, it would be very difficult to formulate a plan that complicated in such a small amount of time. What if they didn't formulate a new plan? What if they mainly used their old plan?

From what Wally had gathered, Roy needed to be in the Justice League. That was the intention of replacing him with a clone. Instead, Roy was cleansed of his conditioning and Cameron went in instead. Wally threw himself back into the conversation, "How did Icicle Jr. come to join you guys? How did you find him?"

The group glanced at each other before Zatanna crossed her arms and answered, "According to the Flash, Icicle Jr. was messing things up in Central when Flash found him. Flash talked to him and Icicle Jr. said that he was sick of seeing you getting tortured. He said that he broke free from the Light and would do whatever he could to help. Then Batman called everyone together and Flash brought Icicle Jr. to where we were all meeting to discuss the plan to rescue you. In the end, Icicle Jr. couldn't be put into the plan so late in the game. He was sent to the Watchtower to be watched by the rest of the League."

"Okay," Wally started, "Correct me if I'm wrong. Red Arrow was supposed to be in the Justice League for the original plan to work."

"That's correct." Cheshire said slowly, trying to understand what he was getting at.

Wally continued excitedly, "The Light never changed their plan! Their plan is still the exact same as before! They just had a different person get into the Light. When they realized that Red Arrow wasn't going to work, they went with the only person who would. Icicle Jr. had to watch me devolving day after day as the experiments got worse and worse, so it was easy to manipulate him into doing what the Light wanted in exchange for my freedom or something like that. He was the best person to exploit because of his connection to me and my connection to the hero of Central City, an original member of the Justice League. It was the best way to get him into the League HQ."

Digger was giving him a pained look, "I think it's a little early to be talkin' so casually about ya's time as an experiment, ankle biter."

Wally waved his hand dismissively and continued, "This gives us an instant advantage. Between my and Cheshire's knowledge of the workings and missions of the Light and your guys' knowledge as enemies of the Light, we should be able to figure out what it was they were originally intending to do. When we know what they were planning, we can better prepare for what's going to happen at the Watchtower, right?"

"Right!" Robin agreed.

"Okay. What do we know?" Hartley asked, lips twisting in thought, fingers tapping out a song against his thigh.

Aqualad started listing it out, "They took the echinoderm from Atlantis. They shipped Kobra venom through Santa Prisca and used it in experiments on animals in northern India. They also used it to enhance the plants used by the Injustice League. They stole and utilized the Fog that Dr. Roquette made. They stole information from Wayne Tech and STAR Labs. Luthor tried to unite North and South Rhelasia with LexCorp as a major investor."

Cheshire took over the rest, "Queen Bee was testing mind control on large portions of people through Bialya. We freed people from Belle Reeve, innovators and tech designers. The attempts from Luthor to unite Rhelasia and from Savage to kill the monarch of Vlatava were both designed to create more test subjects for the mind control work that Queen Bee was testing. They were unnecessary to the final plan though."

"What I'm seeing here is a lot of mind control." Len stated flatly.

Black Canary frowned, "Are you saying that their main plan has to do with mind controlling something?"

"Someone, more likely." Artemis interjected darkly.

The whites of Roy's mask widened dramatically, " _Several_  someones, I'd say. Probably some superhero someones. They needed someone  _in_  the Justice League with access to their headquarters. The final plan was supposed to take place on a day where a large portion of the League would be gathered in the Watchtower celebrating."

"They plan to mind control the  _Justice League_? What have they been waiting for, then? Shouldn't whatever they're doing be inherently obvious by now?" Mark frowned, rubbing at his chin.

"This is a long haul heist." Len mused, "It won't be something that's immediately obvious. There's something bigger. They want them to do something that will take a while to fully affect us. That's why this plan was meant to be spread out over the years."

"So, what I'm hearing is that we know that the Justice League is mind controlled, but we don't know why? That's a start at least. If we know that they're mind controlled, then we can expect an attack at the hands of the League members when we get to the Watchtower. I mean, why wouldn't the Light use them to fight against us if they got the chance? It would be better than the Light wasting their time fighting us themselves." Robin threw in, shrugging at the end.

Roy smiled viciously, "And that's where the Light made their biggest mistake. Now that we know that the Light is going to use the League against us, they're at an immediate disadvantage. Aqualad, Robin, and I have been partnered with Leaguers for how long?  _Years_. We've been around the League and members of the League for years now. We all know that Batman's got some sort of master list of ways to take down other League members. This just got a lot easier."

Miss Martian gasped dramatically, "Batman has a list of ways to defeat his teammates?"

Len shrugged from where he was standing, "I do too, and I live with these idiots. I've actually adopted some of these idiots and I have list compiled of ways to defeat them. The world's not all sunshine and rainbows, darling. Things like mind control and betrayal are a constant worry. Of course, with this bunch, I'm less concerned about some sort of uprising against me and more concerned about mind control, but with the fringe members there's always a worry about them being traitors or just joining to rise in power. It's best to know how to defeat the people you work with."

James waved his hand in the air, "Ooh! Do me! Do me! How do you defeat me?"

Sighing, Len said, "It defeats the point if I tell you. Speaking of which, are you really sure you still want us in on this? I, for one, wouldn't mind learning how to defeat the members of the Justice League, but I can't particularly see your mentors being too pleased with that."

Miss Martian smiled sweetly, "We'll just wipe your memory!"

"Don't say that with such an innocent expression." Sam gaped, legitimately horrified.

"Anyways, it won't matter all that much." Roy inserted, "It would be best if the Rogues took care of Flash first and foremost. For your sakes, I hope that you know how to defeat the Flash by now." He raised his eyebrows at the group.

Some of the older members bristled, but it was James who responded, "Well  _duh_  we know how to defeat Normal Flash. It's Mind Controlled Flash we'll have an issue with! Have you guys ever fought an angry speedster? Or even  _seen_  an angry speedster fighting?"

"What do you mean? I am sure that I have seen Flash angry at some point." Aqualad said, expression twisting slightly as he attempted to back up his statement.

Sam cut in, "Yeah, sure. I mean, think about it. We're his main villains. We regularly celebrate holidays together and we get together once a week at a safehouse to watch American Idol, depending on if we're busy or in jail. He's too nice to be angry. We  _know_  he holds back as much as he can when we push him. But we've seen him fight angry. We've seen an angry speedster fighting."

"When?" Zatanna breathed out.

Len shook his head, "That's not our story to tell. Our point is that all of these heroes of yours are going to be out to kill you. They're not going to be the same people you know. Got that?"

"Of course we know that!" Artemis replied angrily, cheeks flushed.

"Calm down, kid. We're just checking. This is going to be hard for you. You might know how to take your mentors down, but that's in training and in theory. Not when they're out for nothing but your blood."

Wally watched as the heroes glanced between each other, unsure and afraid. They were just kids. A lot of the people gathered there, ready to take on the entire Justice League, were just kids. They were children who were dragged into this epic battle, this horrible life by circumstance and unluckiness.

In the end, though, they really were heroes. After staring dramatically into each other's eyes, the team of sidekicks decisively nodded and lifted their chins, staring determinedly in, apparently, the direction of the Watchtower. Honestly, it was depressing how predictable they were. How exhausting it must be to always do the right thing, to always go rushing off to save people, knowing that there was a good chance that it could be at the price of their own life. Was it really worth it to give up their lives for strangers? There was a difference between using connections to take a truly awful person down like Wally had done as Roy's informant and actually going out and physically fighting people.

And there was a difference between going out and physically fighting people to save the world like the Team was doing and going out and physically fighting people in order to exact revenge like the Rogues were doing. Wally genuinely couldn't care less if the Light destroyed the world. He just didn't want them hurting the people he cared about. He didn't want them to get away with tearing him down and manipulating him. Those weren't offenses he forgave easily.

Cheshire's voice held a smirk when she remarked airily, "Well then, what are we waiting for?"

Her words were the magic force that started their movement. Red Arrow started handing out instructions and everyone carefully checked over their gear. They were getting ready to start for real this time. There would be no more conversation, no more indecision. They had a plan and they had an idea of what was going to go down. They had to move before League did something irreversible.

As soon as orders were handed out and everyone's gear had been checked, they piled into the bioship. Wally stared around the inside with curiosity, raising an eyebrow at the complexity of the machine. The technology was quite fascinating, actually. The amount of research the had to have gone into the ship was astounding.

Soon though, the novelty of the bioship was overtaken by nerves. Wally knew he was in a bad shape. The food and the shower might have helped a lot, but it didn't erase everything. There were still healing injuries and bone-deep aches. Plus, there was the mental strain too. He was twitchy and  _scared_. He was not anywhere near to the right mindset to be going out on hits. This wasn't anything close to what he should be doing. But he had to do it.

He was just afraid that he was going to screw this up. He had messed so much up recently that it wouldn't be that far of a stretch to think that he could ruin all of this too. He just wanted to fix his mistakes, but there was a good chance that he'd be the cause of these problems worsening. He'd already done so damage, delayed the Team by making them come and rescue him. Who knows what the Justice League had already unwillingly done for the Light in the time that they had assumed control?

Robin cleared his throat from next to him. Blinking, Wally sent him a small smile – an attempt at one, at least – and said, mock-casually, "What's up?"

"Just going to go fight my mentor and a bunch of my friends. No biggie." Robin shrugged, mask crinkled at the top like his brow was furrowed.

Any attempt at a smile that Wally was making slipped from his face, leaving a sad scowl, "I'm sorry. I didn't even really think about that. I mean, I knew that it would suck for you guys, but you've been a hero for so long that you've probably formed a lot more bonds with all of them. This is going to suck."

"It's not like I wasn't ever prepared for this eventuality. Batman's pretty paranoid about this kind of stuff." Robin responded.

Wally snorted, "Pretty sure Batman is paranoid about  _everything_."

Robin grinned, sharp and almost happy, "I can neither confirm nor deny your statement at this time."

After a comfortable pause, Wally spoke, almost whispering, "Thanks for saving me."

Robin tilted his head towards Wally, "You're welcome. It really is no problem. I'd do anything to save you, no matter what. If you ever need me, I'll be there."

Slightly uncomfortable with the conversation topic and the earnestness that Robin was so willingly to show, Wally joked, "Oh really? When I'm arrested for the first time, I'll make sure to have you as my call."

It was obvious that Wally had disappointed Robin. The hero's shoulders slumped, and his expression fell, sadness lining his countenance. Robin tried to laugh weakly, but it sounded pitiful and small.

Wally grimaced as Robin started to turn away. Impulsively, Wally reached out and grabbed Robin's shoulder, physically pulling him to look at Wally. He didn't move his hand when Robin turned, instead holding it there as he stared into the whites of Robin's mask, "Wait, Rob. I'm sorry. You know me. You've said it a thousand times: I deflect. When it's questions, I turn the question around or switch topics. When someone tries to say something to me head-on, I deflect with humor. I wasn't trying to upset you, I swear. And I took what you said very seriously. It just… I'm not used to people caring. Especially not now. I mean, you fought my dad. He was willing to hurt you in order to make sure that I kept being experimented on. If that tells you anything about my childhood, then you can understand why I have an issue with people caring."

Wally didn't know why he was being so honest, why he was baring his soul so completely. This was hard for him, but somehow it felt important that he get this out now. They had time while the bioship was getting them to the Watchtower.

Licking his lips, Wally continued, "Robin. You're my best friend. When I said that I was thankful for you coming to rescue me, I really meant it. I don't… I screwed up. The past couple of months has been screw-up after screw-up with me. It's partially just stupidity. Partially it was naivety. Mainly, though, it was disorientation. People were finally caring about me. I was discovering so many new things. I found myself in a completely new world and Uncle Barry was suddenly coming back into my life and I was splitting myself between the Rogues and being Red Arrow's informant. I was so focused on protecting myself that I never realized that there were other people willing to protect me too. So, when you came and rescued me despite all that… it really meant a lot. It meant that you were willing to look past all my flaws and my mistakes and you were still willing to trust me and save me. And, yeah, I know that you're a hero, so you were basically obligated to do it anyways, but it didn't have to be you. It didn't have to be you on the team to save me. You could have been with Red Arrow on the other side of the compound. But you came and rescued me after I've been nothing but a disappointment to you."

"No!" Robin argued vehemently, "You are  _not_  a disappointment. How could you think that?"

Wally snorted, "How could I not? I was brash and rude and ran out on your during our very first meeting. I was always slightly distanced and cool to you through our texts. And yeah, neither of us really gave a lot of information about ourselves through the texts and rare interactions, but I was mulish and obstinate about my life when you asked if I was alright. I did nothing but disappoint you when I was at your HQ. I mean, I was awful to everyone and I kept trying to escape. I lied, and I fought, and I put up every wall I'd ever lowered for you. You trusted me enough to tell me that you and Freddie were the same person and I reacted badly. I know you wanted me to be able to trust you guys, but I'm still not even sure that I do. And then I escaped. I ran when you thought that there was a chance that we could work it out. I ran, and I told you who the mole was in the worst possible way, and I still haven't told you everything. Where in that can you find anything  _but_  a disappointment?" He was starting to get teary-eyed, emotions catching up with him.

Robin grabbed his hand, speaking earnestly, "Wally. You'd been living on the streets for a while. I fight crime. I  _know_  that street kids are tough and give out fake names and run when adults come – especially adults that happen to be their uncles. You were fine during our texts! Like you said, I never gave out any information. I think you gave more information than I did. And you were always so considerate about the fact that I never gave you anything to work with. Everything at headquarters? Totally understandable. The Light had taken you in when you thought that everyone had betrayed you and then we took you away from them. You had made lasting connections in the Light and, for all that you knew, they were hurt because of us. Your powers were missing, and you were stressed, and we weren't helping all that much. Some of us were just as confrontational as you were, so that's not on you. And… after talking to some other villains, after talking to Icicle Jr. a little bit, I understand a bit more about why you didn't – don't – trust us. Icicle Jr. said some stuff that really made me think about it from your point of view. Honestly, I'm impressed with how you've behaved around us based on your life and your career choice. You have never been a disappointment."

Wally closed his eyes as tears pooled in them. One slowly slipped down his cheek. He wanted to move a hand to wipe it away, but one hand was still clamped on Robin's shoulder and the other was encased in the hero's hand and they were both such sources of comfort that Wally didn't want to let go. Robin bumped their foreheads together, "We're going to win this and then we're going to figure everything out. It'll all be okay."

For a long moment, Wally just sat there, another lonely tear escaping down his cheek. Then he whispered, "I believe you."

Roy's awkward cough brought the two of them out of their moment, sending them scattering apart. Roy's cheeks were slightly red as he said, "We're almost there. I'm just… going to go now."

Wally's cheeks heated, but Robin just cackled delightedly, "I don't know why he's getting so flustered. You should have seen him and Cheshire. I'm pretty sure I saw her grab his thigh during a planning session. Those two are definitely getting a little  _too_  close, if you know what I mean. And Cheshire wants to work directly under Red Arrow? Uh huh. Sure. That's how it's going to be."

Snorting, Wally rolled his eyes, "Idiots. Why don't they just get a move on already?" He glanced at Robin as he said it but realized with a start that Robin was looking right at him, too. Remembering Roy's embarrassment, Wally's cheeks heated again. He was such a mess. He blamed all of this on psychological imbalance from the experiments and on Roy's own interruptions. It had nothing to do with his feelings. Nothing. He was  _such_ a mess.

Thankfully, true to Roy's word, they arrived at the Watchtower soon after. Wally felt his eyebrows raise as he looked out the window and realized that they were currently hovering in space above the Earth, staring at what looked almost like a giant meteor/satellite monstrosity. He asked incredulously, "Do heroes know how to do anything that isn't extra?"

Artemis snorted and the two of them made surprised eye contact. The almost amicable moment was broken by James cheering, "Space! We're in space! I'm an astronaut!"

Hartley shared a commiserating smile with Wally even as he murmured encouragingly, "The best astronaut ever."

In one of his increasing moments of clarity, James's voice turned slightly bittersweet as he pressed his nose to the window and commented softly, "I've always wanted to be an astronaut. That's always been my dream job."

The heroes shifted uncomfortably in their seats, obviously not used to such frank, barren,  _sad_  emotion from the villains. Wally shifted too, resisting the urge to pull James from their view. This wasn't the side of themselves that they were supposed to present to heroes. Although, at this point, it was probably too late to salvage any of it anyways. Digger answered easily, "Ya never know. Ya might just get that dream job someday."

James's smile brightened, and he pressed his nose against the window with renewed vigor. Hartley muttered bitterly, "Yeah, sure. With his criminal record, they'd be totally fine with sending him to space."

"Might do it just to get rid of him for a couple of years." Len muttered back, both of them making sure that he couldn't hear their musings.

Wally snorted, and both of their eyes snapped to him. Wally's laughter died at their attention and he turned his head to the side, cheeks heating. Why would he have ever left that? How could he have left that family? The only one that was there for him? He was such a monumental mess.

Miss Martian's voice broke over any conversations that had sparked at the sight of the Watchtower. She announced cheerfully, "Landing soon. Please get ready for battle."

"I don't think I've ever been asked that nicely before." Mark mused, tilting his head in consideration.

"That's because you're an old creep." Sam threw back, rolling his eyes for good measure.

"He's not wrong." Hartley added.

The worst was when Mick joined in, simply staring at Mark and saying, "Old creep."

Mark threw his hands in the air, "Maybe I'll pull a Cheshire and join the heroes. They don't call me names when I'm trying to fight with them. Besides, Heatwave, you are definitely older than I am. The only one who has a possibility of being older is Captain Cold."

Len sent him a deadly glare and Mark backpedaled, "I mean, not that I would be able to tell because he looks way younger than the rest of us adults. Honestly, he's just got one of those ageless faces."

Wally said confidently to Hartley (making sure that he could be overheard by Len), "Probably because his heart's so cold it froze his face." Hartley snickered, and Len turned his glare on Wally. Wally was way too tired to be properly terrified by the Look and just grinned blissfully back and asked, "Are you really going to be mean to me? I'm injured and sad!"

Len sent him an icy grin, "Too injured and sad to fight?"

Wally batted his eyelashes at Len, "Not with my fearless protectors surrounding me at all times because I'm going to make sure that I obey all orders, don't take on anyone I can't, and stay with someone."

Digger guffawed loudly, and Mick nodded sagely. Sighing deeply, Len pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, "I should have stayed solo."

Sam clapped him on the back, "You'd miss this. Plus, then you'd have to handle your sister by yourself and no one wants your sister's full attention on them." Len grimaced, but didn't disagree. Honestly, Wally had yet to meet the infamous Lisa Snart. He was kind of looking forward to it. If he was still around by that point.

Wally shook his head. He needed to not be thinking like that. Not right at that moment. The fight was what he needed to concentrate on at the moment.

Red Arrow stood at the front of the bioship, suited up and ready to fight. He asked seriously, "Does everyone understand their parts?" Everyone nodded in response. Roy nodded back and, after a pause, admitted, "I've never really led a mission before. And I've certainly never done something like this. But, with you as a team, I know this mission will be a success. We're ready to do this and we're going to win. There's no other option. We are  _going to_  win."

This time, the nods he received were more serious, a determined glint to each person's eyes that hadn't been there before. Even though it had been an awful and cliché speech, even Wally felt himself moved. In the spirit of the moment, so close to the chance of death and failure, even something as cheesy as what Red Arrow had just spouted sounded inspiring and motivational. Maybe that was the trick of heroes. They were all super lame, but they seemed cool when they popped up in moments of adrenaline and stress and distress. Basically, if they maintained any modicum of calm in the face of some sort of perceived threat, they were instantly cooler because they held it together when no one else could. That was legit. Good technique for brainwashing the general populace to approve of them.

Then, the door was hissing open and people were creeping out of the bioship. Miss Martian went invisible somewhere above their head. Artemis, Cheshire, and Robin immediately disappeared into the dark corners of the room. Trickster floated up above them gently, swaying side to side as he walked around. The rest of them tramped forward, trying to keep as quiet as possible.

Giving another head nod, Red Arrow put his hand in the air and then swept it down, giving the signal for everyone to split into their respective teams and head out to face their assigned foe. It mainly matched mentors with mentees with a few additional members for support.

Wally, Captain Cold, and Heatwave were assigned to the Flash. Honestly? That terrified Wally. He knew that Captain Cold and Heatwave had been a pair before the Rogues had formed and that the two of them had taken down the Flash by themselves before. He knew that having a speedster with them could only help. He knew that they'd trained for this exact eventuality. He  _knew_  all of that. It didn't make it any easier. He'd never fought against the Flash before, not really. He'd frantically run from the man. He'd tricked him in a hallway. He'd never  _really_  fought him, and he'd certainly never done it when the man was on a warpath. Not even Len and Mick had fought the Flash when he wasn't holding back, and they'd been fighting the scarlet speedster for the longest.

The three crept through the hallways, no conversation beyond the careful hand signals that Len had drilled into his head since practically day one of living with the Rogues. Wally was impressed that he still remembered them after all that time apart.

Shaking the thought away, Wally continued to creep forward, just behind the two older villains. It irked him that he wasn't able to just speed ahead and find things for himself. It would be a piece of cake for him to speed through the compound and locate everyone he needed to find, relaying locations to the rest of the members of their rag tag rescue team. No one would run into Justice League members that they weren't equipped to fight. No one would have to wander aimlessly in the hope of finding someone.

But no. That was, apparently, beyond Wally's capabilities at the moment. Which, he kind of understood. Flash and Superman could both easily decimate him no matter how fast he was running, so it was understandable that he wouldn't want to attract their attention. Still, it grated at Wally that he had the physical capability to be doing something useful and instead he was crawling around the corridors, hoping to maybe run into someone. He felt useless, like a waste of space.

Captain Cold put a hand up to call for a stop. Shifting slightly so as to be better prepared to run, Wally waited for the next signal. Crouching low, Cold peered around the corner, forehead barely breeching the lower doorway. Just as slowly as he'd peeked through the door, Captain Cold retracted his head, coming back up to stand next to the others. He nodded to them.

Wally let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Flash was in there. This was it. They were really going to do this. Wally tensed his legs further, getting ready to speed off, but Captain Cold raised his fist, a sign for Wally to stop. Expression morphing into one of confusion, Wally tilted his head to the side. Captain Cold made another sign. It basically meant that there were more than one hostiles in the adjoining room. Heatwave cursed silently next to Wally.

Wally barely held back a curse of his own. Seriously? Did they seriously have to deal with this? Wally tapped his earpiece, silently asking if they should let the team assigned to that League member know that the League member was in that part of the building.

Captain Cold nodded and Wally zipped a little further away, putting his hand to his comms and activating it. He whispered, "Team assigned to Green Arrow. He's been located in a room at Team Flash's location. Both heroes are in the same room."

Artemis hissed back, " _Both of them? They work flawlessly together. The two of them have been doing this with each other for years._ "

" _We will just have to handle it._ " Cheshire answered back, adding, " _And quickly, too. Momentum and I are also assigned to handle Icicle Jr. too, whichever of us reaches him first. We can take out Flash and Green Arrow and then Momentum and I can search out Icicle Jr. while the rest of our teams goes to back up other teams._ "

Artemis made a sound like she wanted to protest, but Wally interrupted quickly, "We can figure that out  _after_  Flash and Green Arrow are dealt with, okay?" There was no response, but with those two, Wally took that as assent. He hurried back to where Captain Cold and Heatwave were still waiting, hands turning off their comms. They'd been listening. Good. Wally hadn't wanted to explain that through hand signals.

Luckily, the three of them hadn't had to wait long before they were joined by Artemis and Cheshire. The two were wearing stony expressions but didn't seem any worse off than they'd been in the bioship. That meant that their disgruntled frowns were caused by each other and not a vicious battle.

Captain Cold sent them the universal symbol for 'OK?' and received a matching one back. Nodding, Captain Cold gestured to the room, crouching low and observing the scene again at a quick glance. Cheshire and Artemis both did the same on their side of the door. Wally and Mick repeated the action on their side of the door.

They all stood back and watched each other. Captain Cold made a few simple gestures that were fairly understandable for anyone. They were basically asking if they should tag-team this or go with each of their original take-out plans just with the additional challenge of keeping the heroes away from each other.

Cheshire tilted her head and then signaled that they should take this on as a team. They checked for assent from everyone gathered and, although both Artemis and Wally rolled their eyes in tandem, they all assented.

Cheshire and Len quickly worked out the minutiae of the changes to their plan and then,  _finally_ , they were ready to go. Wally wasn't entirely certain that he enjoyed the plan, but it was actually doing something instead of sitting around and waiting for the adults to figure something out like he's been doing.

So, Wally grabbed Artemis, hoisting her up and arranging her in a position that she would be comfortable shooting from. Backtracking down the hallways a little bit, Wally set himself up for running. The blonde nodded to Wally and he grinned sharply before tearing off, speeding down the corridor and slamming into the room that held the Flash and Green Arrow.

Wally watched as Artemis loosed four arrows. In the slowed down time he experienced when he was running, he was shocked to see that Artemis only looked the tiniest bit slow. Her draw back and reload speed almost looked normal-person-speed. It was impressive.

He turned his head to watch the path of the arrows.

Flash easily dodged out of the first one that went his way, bending at the waist as he moved towards Wally, nothing slowing him down as the older speedster sped up, tearing towards Wally and Artemis. The second arrow flew straight at Green Arrow. At the last second, Green Arrow raised a molasses slow arm to catch the arrow just above his chest. The arrow puffed out with polyurethane like Wally had seen Roy's do from time to time.

Wally turned his attention to the next arrow. It flew towards Flash again. The Flash had been distracted by Green Arrow's predicament and had to stop for a moment and concentrate on vibrating the arrow through his body instead of letting it hit him.

While both of them were distracted, Artemis's fourth arrow had landed directly between the two of them, going off in a huge explosion. Both heroes were sent flying, Flash slamming against a wall and Green Arrow only being sent a small bit away, chunks of foam raining down on him as he struggled to his feet.

Wally enacted his next part, speedily rearranging Artemis and throwing her into the air towards where Green Arrow was. He paused for a moment to watch her send out another arrow before landing in a roll, ending up in a crouched position with another arrow at the ready. That was halfway between hot and terrifying. Also, really not what he needed to be thinking about at the time.

The explosion was the sign for Captain Cold, Heatwave, and Cheshire to enter the room. Cheshire disappeared onto the edges of the room, her body blending in with her face disappearing last, true to her name. Captain Cold and Heatwave immediately moved towards Flash and Wally followed them.

Everything was still moving in slow motion for Wally as sparks flickered in and out of existence behind him. Flash was the only thing that moved normally, that existed in this different world that was reserved for just speedsters.

Now, it was time for Wally to do what he did best: be a general nuisance. He was basically on distraction duty. Distraction and evasion. The Rogues had really, really stressed the evasion bit.

Wally called out, "You know, I never would have taken you for the kind of person to be controlled this easily. What do they have on you, huh? Or are you really just that weak?"

Flash growled and burst forward, far more speed than someone who had just been blown up should have. Wally turned tail and ran.

There wasn't a lot of room to really get up to any kind of speed in the room, but Wally tore off across the floors and the walls and the loading deck to get any sort of momentum he could as he ran. Anything to get him away from the angry speedster easily gaining on him.

Eventually, Wally swung back down where Captain Cold was waiting, cold gun held aloft, faint hints of dry ice wafting from the barrel. The second Wally's feet hit the floor, he was sliding, body shifted slightly downwards and back as his feet continued going across the ground, leaving a faint wet spot and a hint of smoke on the rest of the ice behind him.

Flash, so angered by Wally's comments and so out of it from whatever was used to mind-control him, didn't see the ice until he was already on it. He went down  _hard_ , smacking against the ground and actually bouncing once on the ice before he just went sliding. Wally and Captain Cold had to scoot out of the way as Flash went flying across the ice, shooting past the two of them.

They watched with wide eyes as Flash's body hurtled towards Artemis's figure. She was evading fire from Green Arrow's bow and had ducked behind a box. Quickly, Wally tried to run off after him, determined to bodily stop Flash if he had to. Unfortunately, he was still on the ice. He didn't slip – he'd had too many lessons with Len to do that, - but he couldn't get up his speed fast enough. He could do nothing but shout out as he watched Flash slam into Artemis. She hadn't even gotten a chance to fully turn around at his shot.

Artemis went down hard, head smacking against the ground, drawing out a high sound of pain. Cheshire's head whipped up from where she'd been getting ready to launch an attack on the emerald archer from behind. Green Arrow noticed the movement and shot off an arrow towards the assassin. Luckily, Cheshire was able to dodge out of the way, but she'd lost her advantage with that. Now, it was her who was undercover from Star City's protector.

After a moment, it seemed like she was starting to get back on her feet and regain her advantage. She flipped and dodged out of the way of Green Arrow's projectiles. Her Sais flashed through the air as she moved ever closer to Green Arrow.

Then, suddenly, Aquaman came out of nowhere, intercepting Cheshire's advances and sending her back. She started to struggle under the new assault, unprepared for the additional foe.

Wally motioned that Captain Cold and Heatwave should help Cheshire. He would go help Artemis.

Before he was able to make it more than a few steps, though, Flash was standing, dragging Artemis's sluggishly moving body with him. There was a trail of blood oozing down beneath the Flash's cowl.

Watching him with wide eyes, Wally put his hands in the air, projecting innocence. He was kind of wishing that he hadn't sent the other two to go deal with Green Arrow. He could really use at least one of them.

Licking his lips and swallowing down his panic, Wally grinned easily and commented, "Come on, we both know that it's me that you want. You don't want to deal with her. She's Green Arrow's prodigy. She's his problem. Me? I'm the speedster that got away, the one that wouldn't conform to your whole 'good guy' schtick." Artemis was desperately shaking her head, whispering that he shouldn't be doing this. Wally ignored her and finished, "Let her go and see how you measure up against me. Bet you can't catch me."

After the barest picosecond, Flash let out another guttural snarl and tossed Artemis to the side (she landed on a bit of the polyurethane that was floating around the room, thankfully, but she still hissed as she landed; Wally didn't get the chance to find out if she was alright). Wally promptly broke all three rules he'd been given at once.

His orders were to stay in the room and distract Flash when there were others ready to intercept the Flash's mad charges. Instead, Wally was willingly making sure that all of Flash's attention was focused on him even though there was no one ready to back him up.

He was told to not take on anyone above his paygrade, so to speak (which was basically everyone). Instead, Wally decided to put himself against someone he  _knew_  he couldn't hold a candle against.

He was not to leave the side of other members of the rescue team. Instead, he was willingly running through a place he didn't know (even though his enemy was probably intimately familiar with the layout) being accompanied only by said enemy.

This was exactly what the Rogues had warned against, what they had strictly forbidden. Honestly, Wally wasn't entirely certain why they'd thought that telling him to not do it would work. He hadn't really been proven to be all that good at listening to orders.

Besides, what was he supposed to do? There was a good chance that Flash would have killed Artemis! Flash would be beyond himself with guilt. Artemis would be  _dead_. Cheshire would either be devastated to the point of distraction, leading to her own death, or she'd going on a killing rampage of her own. Nothing good could have come from letting that situation drag on as it had been for any longer. This was the only course of action that he could have taken. At least, that was what Wally was telling himself as he heard Captain Cold and Heatwave's furious roars as he zipped out of the room, Flash tight on his heels.

Breathing harshly, Wally flew across the floor of the Watchtower, zig-zagging as much as he could without wiping himself out. As he ran, he caught flashes of various battles. Plastic Man, Atom, Captain Atom, and Hawkman were all being fought in one room, the rest of the Rogues banded together to fight the mob. The Rogues were struggling, but so were the heroes. It looked like they were in a stalemate. Wally couldn't stop to help them.

He caught a vision of Green Lantern unconscious on the ground, immobile and bound. Red Tornado was further down the hallway, limbs torn off, wires sparking. Zatanna and an unknown boy were facing off against Doctor Fate, the boy sending off a frankly terrifying snarl and Zatanna yanking on Doctor Fate's helmet, a desperate expression morphing her beautiful features.

Icon was in a sphere, probably formed by Rocket who had been a relatively quiet observer throughout the events of the past couple of months. She was, apparently, a newer member of the team. Wally honestly didn't know a lot about her nor Icon, honestly.

He also realized that it really didn't matter at the moment because he was a little busy being chased down by an angry speedster. Lighting flashed around him as he pushed himself to his limit, already breathing hard as a long time of repressed movement between his time with the Team and with Luthor's scientists caught up with him.

Flash's lighting was starting to mingle with the ending trails of Wally's and he was only gaining. Wally panted as he ran, knowing that any second of hesitation or any loss of speed would mean defeat.

More scenes flashed by as he ran: Aqualad was sprinting past them, towards the area where Green Arrow and Aquaman were. Wonder Woman was locked in another of Rocket's protective bubbles. There was a giant sphere-like thing that was stationary next to a downed and bound Hawkwoman. Another Green Lantern (since when were there two of them? Were there more than two? Wally really needed to learn more about the heroes) was locked in a battle with Rocket and a giant wolf.

… Giant wolf? Wally  _really_  needed to learn more about the heroes.

Well, after he was done with this situation. Flash's hand grazed Wally's back and he almost tripped over himself with fright. He hadn't expected Flash to be that close. Putting on the last of his speed, Wally pushed himself to go even faster. Flash's arm fell as Wally pulled the slightest bit ahead. Behind Wally, Flash sped up too.

Martian Manhunter was fighting a huge white monster-looking thing in another room. Was that Miss Martian? Did Martians typically look like that?

Batman was unconscious in another room. Superboy and Superman were on the floor, Robin standing over them with a green, glowing chunk of rock, expression comically shocked as he ever so slowly acknowledged the lightning streaking through the room.

Then, it was all over.

It was the worst timing possible, honestly. The room that Flash managed to catch up to Wally in just happened to be the one that Klarion and Vandal Savage were operating. It really shouldn't surprise Wally anymore how unlucky he managed to be.

He went slamming into the floor, Flash coming back around and smashing his fist across Wally's face as he did so. Expression completely blank, Flash smashed his fist into Wally's face repeatedly.

Wally didn't even know how many times he was hit before Savage's "stop" registered in the speedster's world. Flash paused, body pinning Wally to the ground, bloodied glove poised in the air, ready to bring down on Wally's face again. Wally breathed harshly through the blood clogging his nose and draining grossly down his throat. Air whistled noisily and painfully through his probably broken nose.

Klarion made a sound of interest, "That's interesting. We found Luthor's pet!"

Savage made to speak, but Wally spat the blood to the side and spoke first, "I'm not  _anyone's_ pet!"

Wrinkling his nose dramatically, Savage said, "Perhaps I did not allow Flash to properly chastise him. Flash, if you would continue your efforts."

Wally didn't even get a chance to raise his hands before Flash was grabbing him by his hair and  _throwing_  him into the wall. He gasped with pain as he back made contact with hard metal. He hadn't even collapsed onto the ground before Flash was on him again, kicking into his ribs and legs. Flash smashed one foot down onto Wally's leg, snapping it cleanly in half. Flash calmly moved onto punching Wally again, blood spurting across the wall behind the younger speedster.

Wally heard nothing but disinterested conversation in the background.

It threw him sharply into the past. It was his father standing above him, angrily bashing Wally for a reason that couldn't really be defined. It was his mother in the background, muttering quietly to herself about upcoming dinner plans, uncaring of her child's pain.

No. No more. Wally was  _sick_  of this. He wasn't some child anymore! He wasn't some kid who couldn't do anything but screw up and get beat up for it. He was  _done_  with that. He was stronger now. He was a  _speedster_. And  _nothing_  could beat an angry speedster.

Lightning coursing through his veins, Wally could feel sparks racing over his skin, lighting up his eyes and giving him the adrenaline boost to do what he needed to do.

The lightning congregated over Wally's arm, adding an electrical kick to the fierce punch he sent back to the mind-controlled Flash. Flash went flying, smashing into a nearby column and lying there, unmoving. Wally couldn't even find it within himself to care if he was alive or not. There was only rage coursing through him. There was no room for any other emotion.

The rage was what allowed him to stand on his broken leg like there wasn't even an injury. Snarling the desperate call of a wounded animal, Wally wasn't even aware of the others running into the room, stopping at the sight of him bloodied and broken, Flash a ragdoll across the room.

Wally only had eyes for the two members of the Light that were  _finally_  taking notice. Good. He wanted them to see this and  _remember_  this when they were beaten. It would be this half-ragged, broken little kid that took them down. It would do them well to think of that if they ever considered to try to take what was  _his_  again.

Without even bothering to think of a plan, to attempt to form some sort of guideline, Wally leapt across the room. He was fast, faster than usual even without the room to get his speed up. The lightning supercharged his muscles, sending him racing through the air with a supernatural strength. It was like the Speed Force wanted him to feel this way, to win this battle.

Apparently, the Light noticed too. Savage frantically took Klarion's arm, harshly twisting it. Klarion pouted and frowned, but a great red, swirling light filled up the space where the two Light members were and, suddenly, they were gone, nothing but empty space where they had been.

Wally landed harshly, breathing deeply as his leg throbbed. There was still lightning fighting his blood for dominance in his veins. He was supercharged and pumped and ready for a fight. How dare those  _cowards_  flee?

Robin's voice calling his name calmed the lightning somewhat, "Momentum? Wally? Wally!"

Wally whipped around, lightning shooting out in little bolts all around him, decorating the ground in a swirling pattern of sharp pain. He could barely see Robin through the rage. He snarled, "They're gone!"

"And you should be glad of that!" Robin called back. He was fighting to get closer, but there was a haze of lighting crawling up and down Wally, creating something almost like a force field around him.

Len called out from where he was also futilely trying to get closer, "They weren't worth it! At least recognize that they saw you for the threat that you were! They acknowledged your strength as greater than theirs!"

The lightning continued to die down as they talked. Robin was able to grab Wally's hand, only wincing slightly at the small shock he received while doing so, "It's okay, Wally. You beat them. We all beat them. We found the cure to the mind-control device – the Starro tech. The others are working to administer it to all the fallen heroes right now."

Wally slumped as the lightning faded further. Robin caught him, small but strong arms propping Wally up and trying to gently lower him to the ground.

Shaking his head, Wally gasped out, "Not done yet."

He was out of the room before anyone could even blink. The lightning wasn't completely gone, and it had left just enough fire to get him further into the compound. Rooms blurred together, each one the same until there was finally something different.

Wally almost missed the door, tripping over his own two feet in an attempt to stop. He cried out in pain as he broken leg jerked the wrong way, sending him tumbling to the floor just outside the doorway.

The single occupant of the room raised his head, eyes widening.

Icicle Jr. was almost impossible to spot in the computer control room. The room has been overtaken by ice and snow, shite encapsulating everything and allowing Cameron to blend into the scene. It was the shocking white of the room that had alerted Wally to his friend's presence.

Wally lay on his back, winded and in pain. He gasped out, "You should die your hair or something. You blended in so well I almost didn't stop in time."

Cameron threw himself to his knees next to Wally, hands fluttering over the obviously broken leg and the smashed face. His eyes were wide and scared and impossibly sad, "Wally? What… You were in the Light's compound. You were being  _experimented on_!"

"Would you believe that the heroes rescued me?" Wally asked, a self-deprecating smile overtaking his bloodied lips.

Tears pooled in Cameron's eyes, "You were being experimented on. There was no escaped for you. Unless… unless…"

Wally shoved himself backwards, pulling himself up against the wall. He reached out and grabbed Cameron's hand, "Unless you did this for the Light? Right? They told you it would all be over if you did this thing for them, right?"

Cameron furiously blinked away the tears, "I tried so hard to hold on because I knew that this wasn't what you wanted, but… I couldn't stand seeing you like that anymore. I ruined everything."

"Nah," Wally started, "You're good." Cameron shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Wally was reminded of his earlier talk with Robin. He needed to stop letting his defense mechanisms kick on in moments like this. Clearing his throat, Wally squeezed Cameron's hand again, "Cam, seriously. Look at me. Look. Please. I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you were willing to do this to save me. I  _cannot_ tell you how thankful I am to have a friend that would do this. To have  _you_  as a friend. Okay?"

After a long moment, Cameron nodded, letting out a shaky breath.

They weren't sitting there long when Captain Cold and Heatwave made it to them. Len's shoulders slumped, exhausted relief settling over his features for a brief second before they smoothed back out again. He growled, "What happened to following the rules, Momentum?"

Wally sent him a breezy smile, "I really think the better question is which of you is going to carry me back because my leg is so broken right now that even thinking about it hurts."

"One of these days…" Len trailed off, but the threat was still clear. He motioned to Mick to pick Wally up.

They took it slowly, Mick projecting all his movements as he bent over and gently guided Wally into a position where he could be lifted with minimal pain. Unfortunately, minimal pain still means  _some_ pain and Wally whimpered slightly as his leg moved. He closed his eyes tightly, attempting to take a few breaths through his nose before realizing that,  _ow_ , his nose was definitely broken and still clogged with blood. He gasped out loud instead, hissing quietly.

Len's tough-leader act dropped for a fraction of a second as naked concern fell over his expression, leaving him terrifyingly vulnerable. But then Wally's whimpers had stopped, and Mick had arranged Wally carefully to avoid any other undue jostling. Letting his expression fall back into his neutral icy glare, Len clamped a hand over Icicle Jr.'s shoulder and followed Mick's lead down the hallway.

By the time they returned to the main hall, everyone was already there. The heroes had the Starro chips neutralized and removed and the villains were standing awkwardly off to the side, waiting for the rest of their members to arrive.

Flash was the first to react when the four of them entered the room. He dashed forward, a distressed keen barely leaving his lips. Wally didn't want to react the way he did. He didn't want to hurt his Uncle and he didn't want to seem weak. Still, he couldn't help the way he jerked back and raised his arms up slightly to protect his face.

Uncle Barry reeled back, expression shocked. Len informed him regretfully, "There's a good chance that you did this, Flasher. We saw him tear out of the room with you on his heels and next time we saw him, he looked like this and you were unconscious across the room."

Something dark and  _devastating_  passed over Uncle Barry's face, " _I_  did this?"

"No." Wally answered firmly, eyes only on Uncle Barry, but words meant for the entire room, "The Light did this. They were the ones in control. There was nothing you could have done. They've been planning this for a long time. Nothing you did while they were controlling you was your fault."

Robin moved closer to the three Rogues and took Wally's hand, smiling softly, "You almost sounded like a hero."

Wally rolled his eyes, but sent him a returning soft smile, "I said something nice. There's no need to insult me."

Roy snorted, eyes darting up and down Wally's figure, trying to ascertain the injuries. Looking around, Wally noted that pretty much everyone there had some sort of injury. There was no one who had been spared in the battle. Even that giant wolf and weird sphere thing seemed a little worse for wear.

There was a sudden ding above them, the lights brightening for a moment before dimming again. A cheerful female voice announcing, "Happy New Year!"

The whole room started, people going for their weapons and assuming defensive positions. After a second, the words processed for everyone and they all relaxed, weapons falling back into holsters and muscles loosening. Another moment passed and then Black Canary was laughing, holding her stomach and bending over, switching between giggles and full out laughing like she seemed to do when things were really funny.

It didn't take long for the rest of the ground to join in. Even Batman was scowling less than usual.

Wally turned his head and saw that Robin was looking at him, their hands still clasped between them. Wally swallowed and considered the view in front of him. There was no hesitation when he reached over with his other hand and pulled Robin in for a kiss. The two stayed together like that for a long moment, the kiss not quite chaste because of the length, but not lustful either.

When they pulled apart, Wally muttered, "I should've done that a long time ago."

Robin responded by pulling him in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention slow burn at any point? Because that was a slow burn. Only took me 62 chapters to get them together!


	63. Best Beginnings

DDDDDD

Dick could honestly say that he had just has the best beginning to a new year  _ever_. Wally had kissed him. Wally  _kissed_  him. Dick's smile widened as he thought of it, still unnecessarily exuberant about the entire experience.

Bruce glanced over at him, expression caught between fear and relief. It was an odd expression. Alfred glanced between the two of them, raising a bushy eyebrow and continuing his silent treatment of their wounds. After the battle (and the kiss, Dick's mind reminded him), the villains had disappeared quietly and without fanfare, there for a moment and then gone, taking Icicle Jr. with them. Cheshire remained, though, practically glued to Roy's side, an almost nervous expression taking over. The heroes had given the briefest of debriefs. Robin had informed them all that there was a large chunk of time that had some of the heroes disappearing into a portal created by Klarion. The heroes had returned without injuries, but also without any memories of what they did or where they were. It was concerning, but it could also be focused on at a later date.

Batman had quickly hustled the dynamic duo through the zeta beams and into the Bat Cave, calling for Alfred to look them over. Robin was honestly fine, just a few scrapes and bruises that weren't any worse than what he could get from a night protecting Gotham. The muscles in his hand were a little twitchy from being shocked by Wally, but that was about it.

After another beat of silence that passed by far too awkwardly for Dick to take, Bruce murmured, "You hadn't told me that you liked boys."

Alfred's hand paused for a second before resuming its task. He still made no comment. Dick shrugged, "I didn't figure you'd have a problem with it."

Bruce paused again before murmuring another statement, "You hadn't told me that you liked  _villains_."

"Like guardian, like ward, I guess." Dick responded evenly. Neither he nor Bruce were looking at each other, instead focusing on something in the hospital room of the Bat Cave.

Another familiarly awkward pause took over the Cave, only the sounds of bats squeaking in the distance breaking the silence that had settled over the group. The silence stretched until Alfred tutted, "Since no one seems willing to inform me of the events that have transpired, am I to assume that Master Dick and Momentum have finally figured out their feelings for each other?"

Dick yelped, "Finally?"

At the same time, Bruce growled, "How did  _you_  know?"

Alfred stepped back from the two of them, walking over to wash his hands. He sniffed disdainfully, "It is a butler's purview to always know what is happening in his master's life."

"You would be a terrifyingly effective spy." Dick surmised, nodding along with his conclusion. Alfred winked at him, one corner of his mouth curling up.

Alfred then treated Bruce to a frankly terrifying droll stare before turning back around and properly disposing of the soiled treating supplies. He asked over his shoulder, "And does Master Bruce find a problem with Master Dick's romantic choices?"

Bruce's lips worked, no sound coming out. His eyebrows furrowed together, jaw clicking. Eventually, he managed to mutter petulantly, "It is not my place to decide who Dick decides to be with. It  _is_ , however, my place to disapprove if said decided partner is a criminal who seems to have little to no interest in ever switching sides."

Dick felt his heart sink even as he watched the scene with interest. It was always fascinating to watching Alfred and Bruce interact like that, almost like Bruce was still a kid and Alfred was the wise butler prematurely assigned to be Bruce's everything. Still, it wasn't as amusing when it was him that they were discussing.

He  _liked_  Wally. A lot. He  _knew_  that Wally was a villain and that there were a thousand things that could ruin a potential relationship between them. He knew that Wally was recovering from being  _experimented on_  by  _his father_. He knew that Wally had serious trust issues. He knew that there were a lot of things that Wally had to figure out about himself before they could ever hope to properly be together. Wally had to talk to his Aunt and Uncle. He needed to get reacclimated to life with the Rogues. He needed to figure out where Icicle Jr. stood in his life. He needed to deal with the aftermath of his father being arrested. A million and one things to do and no time for a little circus brat in there.

Sighing, Dick slumped back against the exam table, struggling to control his increasingly despondent expression. Why did he ever think this could work? Why did he assume that he would be able to handle a relationship with a full-time villain? He was so, so stupid. No one could see them together! It would be fine for a while, but then there would be the first time that Wally was actually, legitimately arrested and his face would be posted on wanted boards with the rest of the Rogues. Dick was a public figure and, no matter where he went, he was always in the spotlight. Wally would be outed instantly if they ever decided to date outside of their super personas. Dick was sure that he could handle the strain of dating someone he had to, potentially, fight in the field. Flash fought his Rogues all the time and was still able to do weekly hang-outs and various other holidays and traditions with them. It was kind of ironic that that would be the easiest part of their relationship.

And who was he to be thinking all of this about a relationship? The two had kissed, that was it. Yeah, they might have kissed more than once. That just meant that they were high off adrenaline and Wally was finally free. He probably formed some sort of attachment to Dick after having been kidnapped by him and then later rescued by him. It was some stupid mix of an adrenaline crash and a weird Stockholm Syndrome. That was it.

Bruce's hand on his shoulder started Dick. Glancing upwards, he met his mentor's serious blue eyes. Bruce made sure that eye contact was maintained before he said gravely, "Dick. I will  _never_  judge you by who you choose to be with. Love chooses us, not the other way around. I firmly believe that. And you're right, I definitely can't call you out on dating a villain without being a massive hypocrite. Please don't let me affect your relationship with Momentum. I will support it as long as he continues to treat you right, okay?" He waited until Dick nodded before his eyes crinkled softly and he asked, voice gentler, "Now, what's really bothering you about this? My permission made you feel better, but it wasn't what you were worrying about."

Barely even thinking about it, Dick blurted it all out, "I can't tell him my identity without risking everything for something that might not work out. I'll have to fight him. I'll have to choose between him and saving people. Once he's arrested for the first time, we can't be seen in public together. He's got all sorts of home life problems that he needs to deal with. We're both more than a little broken. There will be parts of our lives we probably won't be able to talk honestly about because it could mean betraying our teams to the enemy – in a way. If he even wants this to be a relationship, it's doomed to fail."

Bruce raised an eyebrow, "That's not the Dick I know. Where's that unfailing optimism that even the dark Gotham streets can't blight out? The relationship is going to be hard, but so are a lot of other things. Relationships in general are hard. If there's one thing I've been able to discern, it's that you are both stubborn enough to get through this. And if you don't get through it… then it wasn't meant to be. But I believe in you." He paused, expression twisting in distaste for a moment before saying, "And I believe in him."

Dick bit his lip to stop from laughing at Bruce's expression. Bruce raised his other eyebrow, "Oh, I see. That's how it's going to be, huh? Well, let's see how you like it now!" He started mercilessly tickling Dick's sides, pulling out his grappling hook and keeping the acrobat in place when he tried to flip off the table.

The two of them collapsed in a pile of giggles, laughing until their sides hurt. Dick caught a glimpse of Alfred watching them with the fondest expression Dick had ever seen on a person. He smiled into his guardian's side, closing his eyes and suddenly moving to hug Bruce, clinging on tight. It was done. It was over with. Bruce believed in him. Alfred believed in him. With this makeshift family behind him, he could do it. He could do anything.

WWWWWW

Wally could honestly say that he had just had the best beginning to a new year  _ever_. Like, sure, the end of the last year was probably one of the worst, but the beginning of the new one?  _Awesome_. He was free of the Light. They were defeated (for now) and he was free. His father was in custody with the Justice League. Cheshire was free of the Light. Cameron was free of the Light. He was back with the Rogues.  _He had kissed Robin_. Okay, sue him if he was most excited about that last one. He felt like it was understandable.

The group of villains had made it back to the hideout in one piece, though Cameron made a fast track to the garbage can next to the mirror, heaving into it until the nauseous feeling of traveling via mirror dimension faded into nothing. Mick was there, cautiously rubbing his back the same way the heat-loving villain had been when Wally came to the hideout for the first time.

Actually, this was really similar to the first time he'd been brought to the compound. The Rogues were avoiding heroes? Check. Teenager with a chip on his shoulder and walls a mile high? Check. Injuries? Check. Said teenager being unprepared for mirror traveling? Check. Mick comforting him? Check.

Suddenly, abruptly, Wally started laughing. He'd been pressed into his favorite seat, the recliner back until he was almost flat. The laugh pulled sharply at his injuries and pressed insistently at a growing headache. Still, it did wonders for him when he hadn't so much as smiled in days. He gingerly put a hand over his forehead, the other held loosely over his stomach as if it could ease the pain there. He kept laughing.

Sam was looking at him with an expression of soft fondness that was far too serious for the moment. Digger snorted softly, "What're ya laughing about, ankle biter?"

"Nothing," Wally gasped out, "Nothing. Just… happy to be home."

The group ginned around him, light glinting over bright off of tears in almost everyone's eyes. Wally's laughter trailed off, but his happiness didn't. He settled further into the seat, closing his eyes and sighing softly. He heard Hartley ask Cameron if he was injured.

Cameron sounded upset and unsure when he responded, "What? No, no. There's no injuries over here. It's Wally you should be worrying about."

Len's gruff voice washed over all of them, "We worry about all of our members."

Cameron's head whipped up, staring out at them with bright eyes, so full of hope and so full of fear of that same hope. He knew what it was like to get hit by the hand that fed you. Len restated in a more comforting manner, "If you want it, we've got a place here for you. As a member of the Rogues."

"You're kidding." Cameron said, eyes filling with tears. His skin had switched over from ice to pale, cold human skin. Still, the tears froze slightly as they fell.

Mark's voice was soft and patient and oh so understanding when he knelt next to Cameron and said, "We're not kidding. This is all yours if you want it."

"Didn't I tell you? They're pretty great." Wally muttered, suddenly feeling tired.

Attention snapped back over to him and Hartley checked one more time with Cameron before moving over to Wally. He stared with distaste at the broken leg, "I'm saying the same thing I said the first time you came home with a broken leg. I am  _not_  rebreaking that."

"Don't worry," Wally grinned, "Pretty sure that the leg is still broken and hadn't started healing wrong yet. I ran on it too much for it to heal properly." He grinned again.

Hartley shut his eyes and pinched his nose, "I hate that  _that's_  your alternative to having to rebreak it. It's still going to hurt a little when I reset it. Am I still good to go?" Wally nodded, clenching the sides of the chair with a little more force than strictly necessary. He breathed harshly for a moment before nodding again. Hartley set the bone quickly and efficiently. Didn't mean that it didn't hurt and cause Wally to gasp.

Convulsively, Wally's fingers twitched. He kept his eyes squeezed shut as Hartley dealt with his other injuries, rebreaking his nose and a couple of fingers and ribs. Those, Hartley were grudgingly okay with rebreaking. It was just something as large and important as an arm or leg that he couldn't do.

By the end, Wally was blinking back tears and the rest of the Rogues had gathered closer, watching him with careful eyes. There were, Wally realized, a lot of elephants in the room. Their relationship had been complicated. Their last interaction before this one had been him telling Roy over the phone to stop pretending that the Rogues cared about him. There was a large gap of time – from mid-November to now, New Year's, - missing from their relationship. And they were adding a new member into the middle of that mess. It was going to be complicated and messy and all sorts of all over the place.

Then again, that was how Rogues did it the best. They pushed and pulled each other into shape, fighting out their fights in different ways each time. They were gruff and rough and villains through and through. But they were family. They were the best kind of family: the kind that was born of love and trials and tribulations and  _choice_. Because the family that a person chose for themselves was always the strongest. Family doesn't end in blood.

Len asked carefully, voice smooth as a frozen lake, "You alright, Wally?"

"Yeah, yep. I'm good. Just – going to sit here for a while, maybe?" Wally said, body comfortably slumped into the soft material of the chair.

"That's perfect!" James chirped, startling Cameron into sliding slightly off the arm of the chair Wally was sitting in. Cameron squawked a little bit before regaining his balance. He gasped softly for a second, holding onto the chair for dear life. Wally was smirking at him. Cameron glared back. James broke the moment by continued, "We can open Christmas presents here!"

Tilting his head, Wally asked incredulously, "Christmas Presents? It's  _January_."

"It's only, like seven or eight days after Christmas! Besides, we saved your presents. We even got Icicle Jr. over there a present or two. We weren't going to open them for you or something. What were you expecting?" Hartley asked. It would have sounded irritated, but there was an underlay of worry and relief that only made it fond.

Wally reverently traced the first package that had been plopped on his lap. Very quietly, he admitted, "I've only ever celebrated Christmas once before – when I was with my aunt and uncle. And they, they didn't know me all that well since I was just kind of  _shoved_  on them, so…" He trailed off, expression unbearably soft and fond, but he couldn't help it. This really was his second Christmas ever.

Already emotional from the whirlwind he'd been on the day before, Wally felt tears streak slowly down his cheeks. He blinked a couple of times to dispel them, not sure it was really doing anything.

Mick smiled, "Then get to opening those presents, yeah?"

"Yeah." Wally smiled back. He really was home. There was a lot to work out, but with this makeshift family behind him, he could do it. He could do anything.


	64. The Family

BBBBBB

Barry would admit that he hadn't been the best husband for the last – couple of months, honestly. From the moment the Light became a problem, Barry had been buried in work, throwing himself into his search for Momentum, putting everything in helping the Team dismantle the Light, patiently working through everything Plastic Man needed to know to become a hero.

He hadn't taken any time for the two of them, for just him and his favorite person. It was… it was shameful, honestly. Barry  _knew_  that Iris would never complain about it. She was too good, too understanding of the needs of the city that Barry grabbed and set over his shoulders like an ornate cloak. She had understood from the moment she learned of his secret identity that she would have to share him with the rest of the world, with whomever needed the Flash's help that particular day. She was unbelievably perfect about the whole thing and it hurt Barry that he was so awful in return.

It hurt him more that he was still not giving her the attention and love she deserved. The mess with the Light was finally over. They were still, of course, trying to discover what it was that the heroes who had gone missing had done, or even  _where_  they had gone, but the League understood that the Light had planned for the endgame to be fought far later, so they had time. Different facilities used by the Light were being dismantled all across the country, across the  _world_  really. They still weren't able to get any more on the people who were high members of the Light than they already had, but that was a work in progress. Someday people would see that Lex Luthor or Queen Bee were evil and didn't deserve the praise and approval they got from the public. Someday.

Gorilla Grodd had apparently been appeased by the Rogues, his feathers un-ruffled. He was currently taking a break from his temper tantrums. Small-time thieves and other various criminals understood that the Rogues were permanently back in town and were not to be trifled with at the moment. The Rogues themselves were silent, home and recovering with Wally and Icicle Jr. Barry's life as the Flash and as a CSI were freer than it had been in months.

By all rights, he should be completely free to take Iris on an amazing date, to dedicate a couple of days to nothing but the perfect woman who decided to, for some reason, marry him of all people (not that he was complaining).

Instead, his mind was plagued. Whenever his eyes were closed, he'd see Wally, injured and exhausted, skin waxy pale and bruises pushed under his eyes, flinching back at the sight of Barry. Even cradled in the protective, caring arms of the Rogues, he'd still flinched back, raising his arms to protect himself. From  _Barry_. From  _his Uncle_. It was horrible. It was despicable. It was all Barry's fault.

He understood on a basic level that Wally had  _forgiven him_ , which was a monumental piece of trust from someone like Wally, broken and jaded and oh so suspicious. It proved that, for once in his life, he, on some level, trusted the League. Maybe Wally wouldn't admit to that, but it was true. He trusted the League to have not hurt him, to have not hurt  _each other_. By saying that it was only the Light's fault, he acknowledged the fact that the League wouldn't have willingly done the things they had done – which included hurting him and his family. It was daunting to be faced with that trust. Especially after Icicle Jr.'s chilling explanation of how teen villains felt about heroes.

It still didn't make Barry feel better.

He had  _attacked_  his nephew. He knew that he shouldn't have watched the video feed from the time he'd been under control, but he couldn't help it. He'd watched what he did to Wally, watched every strike against his own family. It had sickened Barry beyond repair. What he had done was  _inexcusable_.

So, his current avoidance of Iris served two purposes: he wouldn't have to face the woman he loved after what he'd done (beat up her own flesh and blood), and he would work to fix the damage he had done. Well, not necessarily fix it. There really wasn't much he could do on that account, but he could at least work towards making up for it. That was all he could really do at the moment.

Barry wasn't sure if he could face Wally any time soon (if Wally would even want to see  _him_ ), but he was sure that there would be some other way to do what he wanted to do, to deliver what he wanted to deliver.

The major speedbump in his plans was that he needed Iris to complete them. And that kind of ruined his attempt to avoid her. Still, he really wanted to make things up to Wally and he knew that he couldn't avoid her forever. Honestly, she had probably already contacted Hal or Ollie to find out what Barry was acting so weird and the traitors had probably told her what he'd done (as nicely as possible, of course; he knew that if they'd ratted him out, they'd have defended his actions the entire time).

Taking a deep breath, Barry tried to get himself under control. It was fine. Everything was fine. This was  _Iris_. She would understand. She might be mad, would almost certainly be upset, but she was perfect and they would work it out together.

Okay. Okay, he had this. He had it. He was  _ready_.

Finally prepared to face her, Barry gathered the papers he'd been working on and turned around.

Only to promptly squeak out a sound of surprise, papers almost falling from his suddenly limp fingers. After a second to process that the person standing silently behind him with her eyebrow raised was, in fact, Iris, Barry put a hand to his chest and gasped, "Come on, babe. Don't scare me like that."

She arched her eyebrow higher, "And what else did you expect me to do? Honestly, if you think that I don't know you well enough to tell that you're avoiding me by this point in our marriage, there's a problem. I mean, seriously!" Her expression softened, and she grabbed the hand he'd put over his chest, tugging him towards the living room, "Really, Barry. Did you think I'd hold this against you? You weren't in control of yourself. They were able to get the rest of the League with this same thing. I know you would never do that if you were in your right mind. I know that  _he_  knows that as well. I love you, Barry. Never forget that."

By the end of her speech, they had settled on the couch. Barry gently grabbed her jaw and pulled her in for a kiss, eyes fluttering as he just – took her in, absorbed the feeling of being in her presence. The kiss finished, and they pressed their foreheads together, Barry's eyes still closed, the hand that had been on her jaw moving around to the back of her neck. He breathed deeply for a moment, "I love you too, Iris. I'm sorry I haven't been around at all the past couple of months. I'm not going to give any sort of excuse. You're right, of course. I was avoiding you. I just… it was partially because I couldn't face you. I had just  _hurt_  our nephew, your own flesh and blood. I did everything I promised not to do to that kid when we first took him under our roof. I messed up with him.  _So many times_. It feels like all I can do with Wally is mess up."

Iris left that for a moment, focusing on a different portion of his monologue, "That was  _part_  of the reason you were avoiding me? What's the rest?"

Barry bit his lip, pulling back slightly from their close quarters. He paused and then dipped back down for a quick kiss before actually pulling back, looking her square in the eyes. Their hands were clasped on their laps. He said, "Legally, based on all the paperwork, due to the fact that Mary West had completely disappeared over six years ago and has yet to be found, and the fact that Rudolph West is currently in jail on multiple charges, including horrible abuse and experimentation charges against his own son, Wally is our ward. He is officially ours to take care of and provide for."

Hand tightening in Barry's, Iris's eyebrows drew together, furrowing adorably as she tilted her head to the side, "We're the official guardians of Wally? Nothing has been formally announced to us. There haven't been any signatures or, um, observations of the house or tests of our abilities to take care of a hid."

"That's because, as far as CPS is aware, Wally is missing. He has been officially missing since the day he and his father disappeared from that hospital. How can they ask us to take care of a child they don't even know the location or status of?" Barry asked.

Iris nodded, starting to understand, "And what does that have to do with you avoiding me?"

Barry had been getting into it, but at the reminder, a lump formed in his throat. He worked past it, swallowing and saying, "I was dealing with a lot of paperwork. I just need a few signatures now. I managed to work through what the Rogues have been doing to legally adopt Hartley and James without setting off CPS and every law enforcement in the country."

"Oh, Barry." Iris interrupted him softly, one hand going up to cover her mouth.

Barry continued on grimly, "Basically, I've been pulling together the papers that would allow for the Rogues to gain temporary guardianship of Wally West and, in the event that his father is incarcerated and deemed unfit to ever perform parental duties towards Wally West, would allow the Rogues to officially adopt Wally."

Iris's eyes closed before she opened them again, tears swimming in her green eyes, "Oh, sweetheart. We'd really be giving him up. We'd be giving him to the Rogues completely, trusting him to them. In a home like that, there's very little chance that he would ever become a hero. It would make things with him and Robin very difficult too. I'm skeptical whether or not we'd ever be able to really see him as an Aunt and Uncle instead of as a reporter and a hero. With our signatures on those papers and the knowledge that the Rogues already have of your relationship, your secret identity would be gone."

Barry wiped away a stray tear, keeping his eyes trained on hers, "You don't disapprove."

"Disapprove of Wally being taken in by people who genuinely care about and love him? Of him being taken in by people who know him better than I think we ever will be able to, who can relate to him more than we could? I know that mistakes were made from us, but they were never malicious. We have only ever wanted the best for that boy. If that means letting him go, then I think he deserves to get one thing he wants, for once in his life." Iris answered, taking a deep breath at the end and leaning their foreheads together again.

"Thank you." Barry said, eyes closing again.

Iris murmured, "For what?"

"For understanding. For doing this for Wally. For marrying me. For being you. For being so perfect. I love you, Iris. So much." Barry murmured back. For a moment, they sat there like there, foreheads pressed together. Misery and relief and love and joy floated between them in equal amounts, giving the air a warm, heavy, not unpleasant feeling.

Leaning back and wiping at her eye with the back of her hand, Iris sniffed, "Alright, where do I sign?"

LLLLLL

The last thing Len had expected when he'd opened the door was to see Flash standing there nervously with a stack of papers in his hand. Len's voice was flat when he said, "I thought we told you that there would be no visitors for at least a week. We don't want whatever you're selling." Len cast a weary glance at the papers Flash held. He honestly couldn't comprehend what they would be.

Flash shook his head, "No, you said that  _Wally_  and  _Icicle Jr._  and  _Hartley_ and  _James_ couldn't have any visitors for at least a week. Basically, just the kids. And what I want to talk about only needs the adult. At least, for our conversation. You guys can talk to the kids about it."

Len glanced at him suspiciously before looking back into the living room where James and Cameron were avidly bashing each other in order to sabotage the other's game character. Hartley was curled up on the sofa, a book in his grasp and a slight scowl on his face as he read it. Wally was napping lightly in the large chair, finding out the hard way that after an extended time in captivity, you couldn't just run around and do whatever you wanted without consequences. The adrenaline had pushed him through his time at the Watchtower, but he couldn't rely on that now. Little activities and muscle strengthening exercises that they'd been attempting wiped him out and left him sleeping on his favorite chair through most of the afternoon.

Apparently, Len looked like he was really considering slamming the door in Flash's face because the speedster hastened to add, "I swear, this is a good thing. It'll be good for you. I swear."

Understanding that Flash really was adamant about that, firmly believing in the truth of his words, Len sighed and pointed towards the back of the house, "Wait out by the entrance to the garden. We'll go around and let you in. We'll talk in the backyard because Wally's sleeping right now. Though, with how loud James and Cameron are playing their game directly in front of him, I doubt we'd wake him anyways. Don't want to risk it, though."

Flash's expression softened at the mention of Wally, a hint of guilt and a splash of determination mingling with overwhelming fondness. It was slightly unnerving to see on someone like the Flash, a  _hero_. It painfully reminded Len of the fact that Flash had a lot of stake in the kid, a lot of reason to want him to switch sides. After a second or so of watching that painfully hopeful countenance, Len closed the door on Flash, expecting him to go around to the back and wait for them.

He walked into the house, motioning to the other Rogues who were in various positions of relaxion across the living room, den, and dining room. Hartley frowned and started to get up, but Len shook his head and gestured that he should stay where he was, that Len would explain later when Hartley didn't have a bunch of miscreants to look after.

Hartley made a face, but settled back into his seat, eyes flicking worriedly to Wally's sleeping form.

Content that the four of them would manage without someone being further injured, Len led the adult Rogues out through the back sliding door and into the backyard. He quickly moved over to the gate and unlatched it, letting Flash in. He closed the door again and led the hero over to the picnic table they had installed in the backyard in case they wanted to spice things up and eat outside.

The rest of the Rogues had already gathered around the table, taking their customary spots. They frowned in confusion when Flash appeared, holding a sheaf of papers and wearing an expression that was halfway between sad and hopeful. It was certainly a disconcerting sight.

Len settled down last, gesturing to Flash, "Scarlet here decided that there was something important that he needed to share with just us."

"C'mon, Flasher. We're on vacation. We're behaving. Let us alone for a little bit, yeah?" Mark complained, a couple of the others making sounds of agreement.

Flash shook his head, "You guys are going to like this, I swear."

"Just tell us already." Mick grunted, expression settling into something vaguely interested.

Flash took a deep breath and started talking, "You all know that I'm Wally's Uncle. We're related by law, so I'm his father's sister's husband. With his mother missing and his father in jail, I'm his legal guardian right now."

Sam's jaw clicked, "I'm hoping there's more because I'm not liking this all that much."

Frowning slightly, Flash stuck his tongue out at Sam before continuing, " _However_ , I know that Wally doesn't want that. Therefore, myself and my wife have signed our rights as legal guardians over to one Leonard Snart so long as the mentioned signs the paper. This is, of course, a temporary guardianship. It lasts until Wally's father has been either convicted or freed – and I am certain that he won't be freed because there's tons of evidence against him. At that point, the guardianship would be transferred back to myself and my wife. In which case, I have  _these_  papers which would negate our legal hold over Wally and leave it up in the air for you to adopt him with  _these_  papers. They all need your signatures. They've already gotten my and my wife's signatures. Wally's would be needed for the adoption ones."

Len was honestly frozen. Flash wasn't kidding when he said that they were going to like this. For a moment, Len couldn't think, couldn't even speak. He was overwhelmed with the idea that they were finally going to be able to properly bring Wally into the family. It definitely took a lot longer than they had been planning, but it was finally going to happen.

Sam, however, was still frowning, "If you signed those papers… that means that you're giving us your identity."

 _That_  snapped Len out of whatever world he'd been in. Voice sharper than he'd intended due to surprise, Len asked, "That true, Scarlet?"

Flash's back straightened, expression deadly serious, "My wife and I talked it over. We are willing to give away our identities for this. We do this with the understanding that our personal lives won't mix. You will not use my identity against me. You will not go after my wife any more than you already do. You will not bring problems that you may have with me as a person into our fights as heroes and villains. Are we correct in assuming that?"

Len watched Flash's expression carefully, trying to judge just how serious he was. The man was dead serious. Len shook his head, confused, "You would do this all for Wally? For that brief bit of time that he'd stayed with you?"

Flash frowned, "It doesn't matter how long he stayed with us! He's our nephew and he's had a trash life. There are parts of that trash life that wouldn't have happened if not for us. Because of that, he's lost trust in us. If he still trusted us, if he still felt like we were viable options, I wouldn't be doing this. I'd bring him home with me and I'd try to help him and make a somewhat good citizen out of him. But I can't do that. He likes it here. He fought his way back to you guys. I know, at this point, that I don't have a chance in catching up to the bonding that you've done with him. I know that there are a lot of things that I'll never be able to fully understand about him. There are some portions of each of your pasts that align with Wally's better than mine ever would, so there are parts of his life that I'll never be able to relate to. I'll never understand what makes him a villain, what pushes him to do crime instead of stopping it. I'll never understand that about any of you. And that's where I wouldn't be a good fit for him. I'm afraid that I'd just make it worse, just push him away again. No one wants that. For him and because you are  _my_  villains and  _my_ Rogue gallery, I am willing to give up my identity to you."

There was silence for a long moment, each of them understanding the enormity of what was happening, of what Flash was saying, of what he was giving away. It was something they'd all wondered. Who was this hero who they cared about, who they might even (only to themselves) admit was a friend? Wally had known, but he'd protected his Aunt and Uncle's identity despite his own personal issues with the couples.

This wasn't the first time that Flash had trusted them with more than he probably should have in the eyes of anyone hero not from Central. Flash had, at times, trusted them to help him protect the city. He had trusted them to not take off his mask or hurt him when he'd accidently fallen asleep at one of their safe houses a couple of times. He had trusted them with so much when he'd come to make it right with Wally the day before he'd run. Now, he was trusting them with everything. Not just his own identity, but that of the one he loved as well.

Len said, "Okay. Thank you, Flash, for doing this. All of it." He knew that Flash would get the layers in that statement.

Flash nodded back, "You're welcome. But, I guess, you can probably know my name now." He pulled his cowl back, displaying blonde hair and blue eyes in a happy face used to smiling, "The name's Barry Allen. I'm a CSI at the CCPD."

"Oh my god," Mark started, shaking his head, "Do you ever get sick of the goody two shoes act? That's all you do. Law enforcement and hero. That's disgusting."

Fla- Barry threw back his head and laughed, "Yeah, I get that a lot from the other heroes. Um, so, my wife is Iris Allen nee West. She's -,"

"That reporter. The best one in the city. She's always there at Flash scenes." Digger interrupted, eyes wide.

Barry grinned, a disgustingly love-struck expression crossing his face, "Yeah, that's the one. She really is the best reporter in the city. You know, she actually calls me to crime scenes sometimes. She lets me know that there's actually one going on."

"You meet on Flash business?" Sam asked curiously. Len leaned forward, curious as well.

"Ha, no. We actually met on CCPD business. She wanted information on what forensics thought about the most recent case. And, somehow, she fell in love with dorky Barry Allen." Barry responded, the love-struck expression strengthening.

Len rolled his eyes, "As fascinating as that is, I just want to get one thing clear. You understand that this doesn't necessarily mean that you're cut out of the kid's life, right? Now, if Wally says that he doesn't want you around, then you're not coming around. If not? Now that we know your identity, there's no reason for you and your wife to not get time with him. We'll arrange it later, when he's healed better and has started to get more of his endurance and muscle mass back."

The backyard grew quiet, the other Rogues treating Flash to the same serious, determined expression as their leader. Flash was staring at them with wide, shocked eyes. He stammered, "You, you, really? You'd – really do that?"

"It's not for you. It's for the kid." Mick threw in, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. The other Rogues tried to adopt the same sort of disinterested expressions. Len knew that Flash read straight through them and could tell what they really meant. The Rogues didn't want Barry to suffer after everything he gave up for Wally, for them. Flash was their hero. They didn't want him hurt.

Barry opened his mouth, probably to say something unbearably sappy and heroic, but he closed it soon after, hand subconsciously reaching up to his ear. He whipped his cowl back on and gave them an unapologetic shrug, "Sorry guys. Gotta run."

He rushed from their backyard amid a flurry of half-hearted projectiles and dramatic groans. The papers swirled into the air behind him. The groans turned into curses as people tried to catch the papers and get them back into the correct order.

"Unbelievable." Sam muttered, scanning over the papers that he had caught. His fingers shook slightly as he set the papers down, "We never had that conversation with Wally. We had planned to adopt him before – which was obviously easier when no one knew where his father was. But we said that we'd sit down and talk to him about all the stuff he told us. I don't even know if I remember everything he told us at this point. It's been a long time."

"I think, by this point, most of it's been talked about." Mark said seriously, expression twisted slightly, "Everything that he told us when Flash – Barry, Flash – was there has pretty much been taken in by now. I mean, it was mainly about his past and the fact that his father's in jail basically deals with that. But the things he told us afterwards? We know that the kid he was texting was Robin and he'd been a criminal informant for Red Arrow. Then he  _kissed_  Robin. His uncle is Flash. Wally's pretty deeply entrenched with the heroes at this point."

Len frowned, the rest of the group silent as well. Mark had a point, even though it was obvious that he didn't want to be the one to point it out. Wally had never displayed any sort of reluctance towards stealing from people. That had never been a problem with the kid. But he also didn't seem to have a problem working with heroes. It was a conundrum. Len shook his head, "This should be talked through with Wally. At this point, there's really nothing we can do about it. We can't change the way he feels and we're not going to lock him in here. In the end, it's his choice. One thing that bears mentioning, though, was something Cheshire told me. She said that when they were rescuing Wally, they were faced with a bunch of the Light's members. Wally convinced them to let him go with the heroes, but they asked him a question first. They asked him if he was going to join the Team. According to Cheshire, his answer was immediate and indignant when he said, no he wasn't going to join the Team because he was a  _villain_. In the end, he chose us over Flash. He made sure that part of his deal with Red Arrow was that he wouldn't ever betray us or the people we trusted. He never gave Robin information on us. I think, even if he decides to continue his relationship with Flash, Plastic Man, and Cheshire and his relationship with Robin, if he decides to continue being a criminal informant, we can trust him with us, with this family, with our heists. We can trust him to still be a villain."

"That's nice of you to say." Wally's voice sounded out behind him, expression tense partially because of the pain of getting to the door and partially from the topic of conversation.

Hartley, who was hovering beside where Wally was leaned against the door, gave them an unapologetic shrug, obviously not at all concerned with the fact that the Rogue kids had been spying on the older Rogues.

Sighing, Len pinched his nose and pointed towards the picnic table. Each of the members walked over as quickly as they could, Wally irritably waving off the hovering of both Cameron and Hartley. Wally eyed the papers curiously, but didn't ask what they were about, instead lowering himself gratefully into the chair and watching Len with an inscrutable expression.

Mark was the one who spoke first, blunt as always, "Do you still plan to be Red Arrow's criminal informant?"

No one was expecting the way Wally's expression twisted, guilt warring with frustration over his features. His hands clenched into fists against his thighs and he said quietly, "I'm not sure. There's… there's something that I haven't told Red Arrow yet, something important, but he's going to hate me for keeping it from him. I want to keep being his criminal informant, but I doubt he'll want anything to do with me afterwards."

"What is it? You could tell one of us and we could pass the news on. You wouldn't even need to be implicated." Cameron answered easily, leaning forward. Len blinked a little in surprise. He had thought that everything Wally knew would also be known by Cameron since the kid had been with the Light longer. Seems like Wally was higher up than Len had expected. He'd need to get a comprehensive list of who Wally had networked with while he was with the Light.

Not the point. Wally was answering, "I won't tell anyone else. It's too personal for that. I need to tell him myself. But, yeah. The main point of that answer was that, yes, I would like to rejoin Red Arrow as his criminal informant."

"And your interest in Robin?" Sam asked mildly, voice soothing like he was talking to a spooked animal.

Wally's own expression softened, the harsh lines of guilt melting into a milder love-struck expression. It was answer in itself, but Wally said, "I want to become boyfriends. I really do. I really like him. He easily became one of my best friends through the times we texted, but it became something more when he kidnapped me. Which, yes, sounds weird. I understand that. But I really do like him. It'll be one of the most complicated relationships in existence and practically defines star-crossed lovers, but that's fine. It's my life, so I really wasn't expecting something  _not_  complicated."

Hartley snorted before punching him on the shoulder, "What's with not telling me that you were gay? We could have talked about boys so much more than we did. The amount of times I didn't rant at you because I thought you'd be uncomfortable since you liked girls. I'm disappointed in you."

Wally raised his arms in defense, "I never said I wasn't! I'm bisexual, by the way. Interest either way. Since that apparently matters. I guess it just never really occurred to me to say anything. It wasn't like I was really interested in anyone when I was with you guys. I knew that you were okay with two guys together because no one had issues with Hartley. It really just never felt like I needed to say it?"

"You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to, but we thank you for telling us this. As for any future relationship with Robin, I'm sure you understand what our requirements would be. Don't let him take advantage of you. Understand that if he hurts you, he will disappear. Permanently. Don't give him anything he can use against us. Understand that it's going to be tough fighting someone you care that deeply about. Don't hurt him either because none of us want Batman coming down on our heads." Len listed out, feeling a faint thrum of happiness at the laughs he got at the last statement.

Wally ducked his head, "Yeah, yeah, I've got that. We're good." It was obvious that he was embarrassed by the topic of the conversation, cheeks starting to heat. Len wondered idly if he'd ever really talked to someone about his feelings before, if he'd ever had someone to gossip about potential romantic partners before. It wasn't a happy thought.

Len nodded, "Alright, that brings us to our last point, then." He glanced around the rest of the adult Rogues, checking to make sure that they were as good with this as he was. He received nothing but nods in return. He nodded back and continued, "Your Uncle Barry just brought us these." He shoved the papers over to Wally.

Picking them up idly, Wally immediately started to scan them, "What are – wait. What? My Uncle who?" His head whipped up, going to stare at Len with big eyes. Cameron was glancing between the two in obvious confusion.

"Your Uncle Barry Allen, husband to Iris Allen nee West, aka the Flash, gave us these papers." Len elucidated, finding some amusement at the obviously gobsmacked expression on Cameron's face. Apparently, he didn't know that Wally was related to the Flash.

Cameron's eyes narrowed, "Wait, if Barry Allen is the Flash and Wally is related to his _wife_ , then how did Wally get his powers? That doesn't make sense. When you said they were related, I automatically assumed that the powers were hereditary, but Wally wouldn't be related to Flash by blood…"

"Sitting right here." Wally said, waving a hand lazily in the air, "And it was honestly just a coincidence. The same accident that gave him his powers just happened to occur to me as well. Like, big coincidence and all that, but the Speed Force does some weird things, so who even knows?"

"That doesn't even make sense." Cameron whispered. The Rogues laughed. Len observed their newest member. Training would have to start from scratch because he wasn't used to working with the Rogues and he wouldn't be nearly fast enough for their hero, but that was okay. Len was fine with starting training over again if it meant that he was able to help this kid. Honestly, at this point it was getting ridiculous. They'd have another whole team of kids waiting to replace them by the time they got old enough to retire. They were collecting kids like they were valuable collector items. Still, if Len got the chance to go back and make a different decision, he never would. These kids gave him life and held the Rogues together in a way that Len never would have been able to. The kids gave them hope for the future.

Len could tell when Wally had returned to reading the papers because his mouth fell open, lightning sparking in his eyes as he started going over the papers even faster, reading them and flipping through them even faster than a normal person could turn a page. The other Rogues fell silent as they watched him read through the papers with dawning understanding, something painfully open highlighting his expression.

When he finally finished reading the papers, Wally just sat there, silent and frozen. James whispered, "What's on those papers?"

Wally answered before the rest of the them could, "They're adoption papers." His voice cracked on the last word and he cleared his throat before continuing, "Well, first there are temporary guardianship papers for until my father is labeled an inept guardian, but the rest are for adoption." His voice was rough, expression clearing until it was completely blank.

James and Hartley watched him with hope blooming in their eyes along with sympathy. They obviously both remembered when they were first asked if they wanted to be adopted. They had both cried, finally letting themselves be free of the pasts that had torn them down and turned them to villainy in the first place. They had broken down and signed the paper as soon as they could and cried with their new family.

Wally didn't cry. He just sat, features blank. There were no hints towards what he was thinking, no signs that this was good or bad. Len resisted the urge to fidget. He'd known that this would be one of the hardest adoptions they'd go through because Wally was more jaded than most of them combined. He'd known that Wally had walls climbing higher than anyone else he'd met. Len  _knew_  that Wally valued his freedom above all other things and that running away, running a to a new place was his comfort, that the idea that the world was at his finger tips with nothing to tie him down both scared and comforted him. This was the definition of tying him down.

If Wally went through with the adoption, then he wouldn't be able to leave so easily. He'd have legal proof that there were people willing to go after him, to search the whole world to find him. It wouldn't be the first them they had gone after him when he ran, but it would be the first time that they were doing it as completely confirmed family.

Family itself was obviously a complicated term for Wally who had learned to associate that phrase with only bad things. But that was biological family. This was the family that had created itself, pulling together oddballs and losers from all over to create a team that was completely dysfunctional and crazy. This was never the typical family and he  _knew_  that, so it shouldn't be problem. He should understand that this wasn't going to be anything like his past family had been. This was different. They were going to take care of him. It would be them against the world and they'd come out on top. They wouldn't let anyone hurt him and get away with it. Never. He had to understand that.

Len's expression fell as Wally continued to remain silent. The rest of the Rogues were just as frozen, expressions tense and confused. Some were slightly hurt, not sure how else to take the continued silence.

Finally, Wally moved. His muscles tensed, and he leaned slightly away from the table. Len knew that he wasn't the only one who reached out slightly, firmly convinced that Wally was about to run again, so soon after they found him, while he was supposed to be healing.

He didn't run, though. He watched them, expression crumpling slightly as he glanced between them all, turning from one to the other to the other, breath picking up as he went. No one moved, afraid to set him off, to startle him into running.

After a second, Wally's eyes closed, and the first tear fell. Everyone slumped with relief. If he was crying, then there was little chance of him running. He ran so he didn't have to show them his emotions. If he was willingly showing them his emotions, then that meant a lot. It meant that he had started to trust them a little more. It meant that everything was forgiven. It meant that they were family.

Wally started laughing, tears still falling as he laughed, "Can't really sign this if I don't have a pen."

The Rogues started cheering, laughing and hollering. A few of them bolted towards the kitchen, practically tripping over themselves in their efforts to get to the pen first. Wally was going to be theirs. He was a  _member_  of the  _family_. He was a member of the family.


	65. Status: Perfect

RRRRRR

Roy groaned when he heard the sound of his window being carefully opened. He stopped where he was and hung his head, "Haven't you ever heard of privacy? Or a door? Knocking? Any sort of common courtesy?"

Dick's voice was unrepentant when he responded cheerfully, "Of course not. Who do you think -," His voice cut off and then there was the sound of a swishing cape and he squeaked, " _What are you doing_? Why would you let an innocent child walk in and  _see_  something like that?"

Groaning again, Roy pushed himself away from the training mat, offering Cheshire a hand up, but she shook her head, lying on the mat and arranging herself in a position that allowed her to watch the show better. He rolled his eyes and answered Dick, "We were just training Boy Idiot."

"Training for what? Baby making?" Dick asked, voice properly scandalized. Cheshire snorted in the background.

Dropping his face in his hands, Roy sighed, "What do you want, Robin? Was there a purpose to this little visit?"

"Of course!" Robin answered, instantly unaffected by the sight he had walked in on. That little punk. Robin continued, "We're going to go visit Wally! The Rogues said that people could ask to meet up with him once the week is over and it's over. I've already texted Wally and he's waiting at a park for us. Come on! Up, up! Let's go!"

Inwardly, Roy was thrilled at the chance to go see Wally. He'd forgotten that this day marked the end of the Rogue mini-vacation. It would be good to go and see the kid, see how he was actually holding up. Roy knew that Dick had it a little harder than he did. Dick was obviously smitten with the speedster and he was the one who had walked in on Wally being experimented on. There was a lot more nightmare material in it for Dick than there was for Roy. It was still a sucky situation and Roy just really wanted to make sure that his friend was okay. And that the two dorks weren't horribly awkward around each other. They needed a translator for each of their particular brands of stupid to deal with awkward situations and Roy could do that.

Outwardly, Roy rolled his eyes and asked Cheshire, "You good with me heading out?"

"Yeah, I'll clean up. Grab the groceries on the way back, okay? We still ordering out tonight?" Cheshire (Roy knew that her name was Jade, but the situation was confusing enough as it was; he was moving one step at a time with this) responded idly, sharp eyes watching the two of them with more than passing interest.

Narrowing his eyes at her, Roy said, "Will do and yes, we are. You look suspicious. Should I be worried?"

She rolled her eyes dramatically, turning onto her back and bending a knee upwards, "According to you, I always look suspicious." Roy didn't let up on his narrow-eyed glare and she sighed, "No, you shouldn't be worried. Tell Wally I said hello, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. See you later." Roy responded, finally turning to leave with Robin. Cheshire fluttered a hand at him as a goodbye.

Robin, thankfully, waited until they were out of earshot of the apartment before he started commenting again, "So, you two are living together?"

Roy's cheeks flushed, and he growled, "She didn't have a place to live and it was more convenient for us to be close what with me training her to be a hero and all that. It's not like what you obviously think it is. Not all of us are determined to go for that whole 'star-crossed lovers' thing."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say because Dick's shoulders slumped slightly, and his lips curled down at the edges. Sighing, Roy asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing's the matter." Dick responded mulishly. Roy glared at him. Dick sighed harshly and ran a hand through his hair, "Look, it's nothing, really. I'm just not sure where Wally and I stand. He texted me right after the kiss, apparently when he got a new phone as a Christmas present and he said some things about how nice the kiss was and how he shouldn't have taken so long and how he was thankful that I saved him, but then he said that it was going to be radio silent for about a week while he started to recover. So, that was it. He said that and then he didn't say anything else. It was weird. I'm not sure how far he wants to take this."

"Do you want me to pretend I saw someone I knew and then stand off to the side and eavesdrop on you guys while you talk about your feelings?" Roy asked, eyebrows raised.

Dick pushed him into the side of the alleyway wall they were walking past, "I'm being serious."

"So am I!" Roy protested, grabbing Dick's arm and pulling him to a stop, "Look, I really am being serious. Do you need me to give you guys some space at the end or something to talk it out? This is probably something that you should get figured out sooner rather than later, okay?"

"Do you really think I should talk about it with him today? He's still recovering. I mean, this is the first day that the Rogues have even let him out of the house since he's been rescued." Dick asked, expression crumpling slightly as his eyebrows drew together.

Roy smiled and ruffled his hair, "Trust me kid, as soon as possible is the right time. He might still be recovering, but I bet he's as confused and worried about this as you are. Just talk it out with him. It'll all work out."

"Okay." Dick said, nodding decisively.

They turned together towards the zeta transporter that was closest to Roy's apartment. Quickly glancing around, Dick placed a pair of sunglasses on his face and ducked behind a dumpster, quickly shucking off his suit and putting on his civvies, the mask being carefully pulled out from beneath his dark sunglasses. Roy put on his own pair of dark sunglasses, not particularly eager to explain how he managed to get from Star City to Central City in the hour or so since he was last sighted leaving the gas station earlier that moment. That would raise a couple of awkward questions that he didn't really want to answer.

The two of them stepped through the zeta beam, finding themselves near the park where they were supposed to meet Wally. Dick adopted a nostalgic expression, lips curling up slightly as his shoulders lost some of their tension, his body portraying softer lines. Roy raised an eyebrow, "This place mean something to you?"

"This is the place where I first met Wally. He had gone on a run and the Team was here as a bonding exercise. I slipped away to talk to the lonely looking guy who was resting from his run." Dick answered, smile still so painfully soft.

Roy looked down at him, his own expression soft. It was nice to see Dick relax like this, to see him so excited and open to the idea of a relationship. Roy had seen Dick have crushes before, but nothing like this. It was a growth from complete strangers to friends to best friends to love. It was kind of impressive to watch. Roy thought of the woman waiting for him back in his own apartment and wondered at what kind of relationship they had. Maybe he should take his own advice and talk to Cheshire. Then again, that was the logical thing to do and he was never really the logical kind. Maybe he'd see how it worked out with Dick and Wally and then he'd think about it. Maybe. Probably not, honestly.

He was shaken out of his musings by the sudden burst of movement next to him. Roy watched in bemusement as Dick moved into a full sprint, flying towards a bench nestled in the snow, a bright spot of red distinguishing the person sitting on it from the surroundings. Dick leapt onto the chair, practically toppling onto it next to Wally. Wally's expression morphed from sleepily content to panicked as he reached out and braced Dick. Roy knew that the former acrobat would have no problem staying upright, but it was sweet watching Wally get worried about the kid. Dick didn't move from where Wally had braced his arms around him, instead choosing to lean on Wally, practically snuggled against his side. Roy watched as Wally blinked for a second, staring down at Dick like he'd never seen the hero before. Then his lips curled into a smile and he relaxed, letting his arms fall into a more natural position.

When Roy made it to the bench (he'd taken the much more sensible approach of walking normally), Dick commented happily, "He's like a space heater!"

Wally raised both eyebrows, "Well, as a speedster, I do generate more heat than the average person."

"Nerd." Roy said, sitting in the open space on the bench, glad that Dick had snuggled up to Wally and left more room for him. He did not need to be squished against two love-struck teenagers. That was not what he wanted with his day.

Wally didn't respond to Roy's teasing, though. His jaw clenched, and he focused his attention on his hands, "What have you guys been up to?"

"Uh, no. That's not going to fly." Roy said, voice sharp. What was up with Wally? Why was he acting like that? Had Roy done something wrong? Had  _Wally_ done something wrong? Roy didn't know when either of those would have had a chance to occur because Wally had been holed up in some Rogue hideout for the past week.

Dick glanced upwards at the terseness in Roy's voice and the sudden tenseness in Wally's body. He frowned and asked carefully, "You good Wally?" He shot Roy a look that was obviously telling him to back off because this was their first real interaction with Wally in a long time and no one wanted to screw that up. Roy frowned back at him.

Wally took a shuddering breath and said, "Hey, Ro-, er, Freddie? I don't actually know what you want me to call you in public?"

Dick winced, and Roy winced with him. That must have hit him right where it hurts. Dick was already torn up about not being able to tell Wally who he actually was and there was Wally hitting the nail on the head within a minute of them meeting up. Dick swallowed and answered, "Freddie would probably be the better choice. Thanks for, you know."

"Yeah," Wally smiled briefly before his eyes flickered to Roy and the smile faded, "So, Freddie, can I have a moment with Roy please? I'm sure he'll end up telling you anyways, but I don't want to assume."

Pulling away slightly, Dick stared up at Wally for a long moment before he bargained, "Only if I get a one on one talk with you too." Wally nodded instantly. Dick nodded back and started walking away, glancing back only once, an expression of confusion covering his face.

Roy could relate. He had no clue what was going on. Why did Wally need to talk to him, specifically? He'd been expecting Wally to try for alone time with Dick, never him.

Wally started ringing his hands together, the fingers flickering slightly like they were vibrating with nervous energy. After a second, he started speaking, "I'm sorry. I should have told you earlier. I should never have kept this from you in the first place. I understand completely if you hate me afterwards and never want to talk to me again."

"Wally," Roy said flatly, starting to get a little concerned despite himself, "You're starting to sound like a bad soap opera. Just tell me what's going on. We'll figure it out."

"You're a clone." Wally blurted out. Roy hadn't even had a chance to process the words before Wally was speaking again, "You're a clone. When the Light were getting me to join, I was still kind of a little iffy and all that. They knew that I had talked to you and said that I was going to be reporting stuff about the Light to the League through you and they didn't want me to give the League actual stuff. I was like, it's disturbing that you know about that. They were like, who are you loyal to? The League or Red Arrow? I obviously said you. They said, awesome, then there aren't any problems here. And then you walked through the door. You were in one of your code word trances, but they explained that you were a clone made of the original Roy Harper. They still have him somewhere. I looked in what little free time I had, but I could never find out where the original one was held."

Roy held up a hand to stop Wally from continuing. His throat had gone dry and there were faint tremors shaking his limbs.  _What_? He was a  _clone_  of the  _real_  Roy Harper? He appreciated that Wally had always said 'original' instead of 'real', but that didn't change the truth. Roy was a knock off, a replica, a person created for the sole purpose of aiding the Light to destroy the League. He was starting to get a stronger understanding of what Conner had felt when he was getting all of this explained to him.

He was a clone. Wally hadn't told him. That meant, most likely, that Cheshire hadn't told him even though she knew.

Who was Roy kidding? Why had he trusted them to give him the full picture? They were villains in the long run and their helpfulness only ran as far as the rewards went. Wally told the Team that Roy was the mole so he could escape. He didn't tell them that Roy was a clone because that information wasn't necessary for him to escape. He didn't tell Roy that he was a clone because he was afraid of retributions. Afraid of how Roy would react. Afraid of Roy.

Roy looked closer at his friend, saw the way he was still shaking, eyes dark with self-loathing and fear and frustration. Wally had shifted slightly away from Roy, arms partially wrapped over his ribs, protecting his vital organs. Roy didn't know what to do. His gut reaction was to be furious, to yell and scream and rage and storm off to go lick his wounds in private. He wanted to be angry at Wally, hurt that he hadn't been told anything before this, before it was all over. What if this had been used against him? What if a member of the Light had manipulated him with this information because Roy hadn't been informed?

That wasn't him anymore, though. He liked to believe that he had grown through the experiences of the past year. He'd left Green Arrow and went solo because he was certain that he could do it, that he was grown enough to do it on his own. He needed to stop being so impulsive, stop letting his emotions get the better of him.

Were they even his emotions, though? Was anything he thought even his? He was  _created_  by the Light,  _formed_  by them. Were his thoughts his? Were they planted there by the Light? Martian Manhunter had gone through his head, knocked all the programming out, but that didn't mean anything in the end. It didn't mean that he was any less a creature of the Light's creation.

Roy closed his eyes, pushed it all aside. Wally had been manipulated by the Light and brought into their fold and continuously tired out to the point that he was even more malleable to their machinations. He was experimented on by them and threatened and blackmailed. He probably had more reason to hate the Light than Roy did. Wally had had nothing but the worst kind of life and he had every reason to be terrified of Roy, of  _heroes_  in general, of  _people_. It was completely understandable that Wally was hesitant to tell Roy this no matter how much Roy deserved to know.

Trying to be the better person that Dinah always told him he was, that he was trying to be by being Red Arrow, Roy swallowed and said tightly, "Thank you for telling me."

Wally snuck a surprised look at him, probably confused about the difference between the tone of his voice and words he was saying, confused about Roy's easy acceptance. He said cautiously, "You're angry."

Roy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know what you expected, Wally. Yeah, I'm angry. I'm confused, and I'm hurt, and I'm angry, and I'm upset, and I don't know if any of it is real. Can you understand that, just a little bit?" He had been aiming for brutally honest, but the end was a little more biting than he had intended.

Wally flinched back a little bit, voice quiet when he answered, "No. I can't really. I'm sorry."

Sighing, Roy scooted a little bit closer to the speedster. He pulled his arm around Wally and sighed again, "It's okay. Like I said, we'll work it out." He paused before adding, "Just a warning, this is definitely the calm before the storm. I'm definitely going to blow up at some point, but I'm holding it together right now. Okay?"

"Okay." Wally answered, voice still quiet. It made Roy's heart hurt, but he was not emotionally stable enough to try to address it.

Frowning, Roy pulled back, "Ready to bring, uh, Freddie back?"

Wally raised both eyebrows, "It's so awkward when you try to use his fake name like that. Like, total awkwardness."

He never answered the question, though, and the two sat there for another moment. Roy asked, "Why tell me now? I mean, why tell me at all?"

"You deserve to know. I'm going to try to use the contacts I still have with the Light members that escaped to find the original Roy Harper. I'll bring him home too." Wally said, determined.

"You don't have to do this, Wally. You know that, right? This isn't on you. This is on the Light and it's my responsibility to find the real one." Roy responded.

"Original," Wally said, "The original one. You're both real. Everything the two of you feel is real. Both of you. And it is on me! I helped the Light! I might not have been a part of them when that happened, but I worked with them."

"You just went through a horrible experience, the only thing you need to do right now is heal." Roy said frowning and making sure that Wally was looking at him.

Wally made a face, "Now you're the one who sounds like you're in a soap opera. Look, it's fine. I'm working through my problems, but getting rid of the things that give me anxiety and guilt will be just as helpful as anything else I do to heal up. It's fine. We're fine. I'm fine."

Roy raised both eyebrows, "Okay, okay. Jeez."

Wally scowled, finally starting to look like his old self, "That's all I've been hearing for a  _week_. Every single member of the Rogues is an overbearing mother hen. Except James and sometimes Hartley. The rest, though? It's awful. I twitch my nose and they're fawning over me, asking if I'm having an allergic reaction or if my nose is making me uncomfortable. What are they going to do, cut it off?"

Roy bit his lips, nodding along with what Wally was saying and trying not to laugh. It was strange seeing him get worked up about this, frustrated with the way his villain family were coddling him. It was strange seeing a villain like this at all, strange seeing them as people.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Can I come back yet? I'm getting cold! It's the beginning of January here!"

Wally's head shot up, "What? Oh, yeah! Freddie, come on back! I've got my space heater mode activated."

"Thank goodness. I was pretty sure that I was going to die out there. I've definitely got frostbite at this point. It's awful. I hate you guys for making me wait that long. And no, you were not conversing the entire time. I heard your 'what?' I heard it! You forgot about me!" Dick ranted while he crawled in next to Wally, shivering exaggeratedly. He huffed out a breath, pouting. Wally's eyes softened at the expression.

"Need me to give you two your time alone?" Roy asked, not really sure he wanted to stand alone in the cold with the thoughts of 'clone-clone-clone' running through his head, but willing to do that for his best friend and his criminal informant. Former criminal informant. Maybe? Roy actually wasn't sure. They never really officially stopped? Great, more things to discuss.

"Not just yet. I'm leeching heat off of both of you currently in an effort to recover." Dick moaned piteously.

Wally laughed, eyes crinkling on the sides. The three of them settled into the bench, sighing slightly. Roy asked abruptly, "Best part of the New Year so far?"

"Kissing Wally." Dick answered immediately before flushing red. Wally glanced down at him, startled. He blinked slightly before a giant grin covered the expression and he smiled goofily down at Dick. Roy mock-gagged in the background.

"What about you?" Dick asked, affecting nonchalance, but actually being very chalant.

Wally raised an eyebrow, "Can I have a tie? I'm pretty sure there's a tie."

"Man, even I know that you were supposed to respond with, 'kissing, uh, um, Freddie.'" Roy threw back eyebrow raised.

Dick snickered, apparently unoffended, "With all the uh's and um's too?"

"Shut up." Roy pushed Dick further into Wally, rolling his eyes, " _Anyways_ , what are your two things, then, Wally?"

"Obviously kissing Freddie." Wally answered immediately, which was met with a blinding smile from the person in question. After a soft pause, he continued, "And then, the Rogues signed the paperwork to adopt me."

"Seriously?" Dick asked, sitting up so fast he almost knocked into Wally's chin, "That's great news! Wait, how exactly does that work? Like, totally excited for you, but who lets known criminals adopt children?"

"I have no idea how the Rogues have continued to manage doing that. This time, it was the Flash, though. I don't know if you know, but he's my uncle and, technically, he's got guardianship of me. So, well, he gave temporary guardianship to the Rogues up until my father's trial. If he's sent to jail, then the Rogues can officially adopt me. It's kind of complicated and convoluted, but… I think it's pretty awesome." Wally had a soft, happy smile on his face. It was probably the most peaceful that Roy had ever seen him. He thought back to his first and second meetings with the metahuman. Wally had been cocky and nervous and snide when they'd met in the hotel, a bag of Roy and his family's things in his hand as he ran out of the room. He'd been despondent and bitter and as afraid of rejection as he was of acceptance when Roy had met him in the alleyway, fresh from leaving his family before they could kick him out. This was a completely different person, worn down by the care and comfort of the people around him, his rough edges smoothed out and sanded by his first real experiences with a family that really cared.

It was amazing to see the change, to see the sort of healing that family could do.

Dick punched Wally in the shoulder, "Congratulations! You're going to love it with them!"

"First of all, you don't even know them. Second of all, I've lived with them before. I know that I'll love it." Wally retorted, eyebrows raised.

Dick pouted at him, "First of all, I've worked with them as my criminal informants and I've fought against them and all that. I feel like I know them quite well. Second of all, you haven't lived with them as a real family. So, there!"

"Criminal informants?" Wally asked incredulously, "Why was I not informed of this? I feel like someone should have mentioned this to me at some point or another!"

Roy laughed, "Man, it was such a mess. I think there were three different people with moles inside the Light at the same time and one of them was a mole for the Light being fed fake information. After we captured you, we actually had to all sit down and figure out what was going on because literally no one knew what the other people were doing."

They all laughed, content in the feeling of the moment. Dick smiled happily, "How about you, Roy? Favorite part of the New Year in so far?"

"Definitely the look on Batman's face when Wally kissed you." Roy said, lips curling up at the expression of fear that crossed Wally's face.

Wally whispered, "He's not going to, like, hunt me down and kill me at night or something, right?"

Dick winced slightly, "Maybe if we take things slow enough?"

"Speaking of which," Roy announced, "I'm going to take my momentary leave for the moment. Call me back once you've finished figuring out your lives. And don't you dare forget me out there. You will not like the consequences." He sent them a glare as he walked away. Maybe he would call Cheshire, talk to her about the whole clone thing. Maybe he'd talk to her about the whole living together thing. And the kiss thing. Those two weren't the only ones who needed to figure out their lives.

DDDDDD

Dick watched Roy walk away with a mounting sense of dread. He'd never really had to have this kind of serious conversation with a potential romantic partner. It always seemed like it was going to be terribly awkward and horrible and make everything worse, but Dick really did need to know what was going on. He felt like he was getting conflicting signs, but there was a good chance that a lot of that was just the struggles they had to go through and Wally's recovery time.

Swallowing, Dick figured that he should probably get off of Wally so they could have this conversation face to face instead of face to chest like they were currently sitting, but he couldn't quite convince himself to do it. Partially because he really didn't want to have to look Wally in the eye and partially because Wally really was like a space heater.

He felt Wally take a deep breath underneath him, heartbeat fluttering like a hummingbird's wings, fast and graceful and beautiful. Wally whispered, "I'm a little scared of this conversation."

"The great Momentum? Scared? How could it be?" Dick teased, irrationally comforted by the idea that Wally was just as scared as him.

He could hear the smile in Wally's voice when he answered, "I think you know why I'm scared. This relationship has everything stacked against it. It's a high risk venture." Dick felt his stomach drop, the words he'd been dreading swirling around him and painting the air in sinister hues. He closed his eyes as if that would stop the words. Wally continued, "I don't care."

Dick actually stuttered with surprise, "I-I, what?"

"I don't care." Wally announced, entirely confident, "I've never been in a relationship because it's kind of hard to maintain a relationship when you don't stay in the same city for more than a couple of weeks, or even in the same country for more than a month or so at a time. I never really stuck around long enough to form a friendship, let alone a relationship. This is the longest I've stayed in one place since the first time I was brought to the lab. This is the first time I've gotten a chance to cultivate friendships, the first time I've gotten a chance to care about someone the way I care about you. I'm not going to give that up."

Dick took a deep breath and tried to emulate the calm tone Wally had used, "We're going to have to work out a lot of things. Like you said, the cards are stacked against us. It's just how it's going to be. We're both relatively new to the whole relationship thing. You don't even know who I am. There are  _so_  many problems. But if you're willing to fight for it, then I am more than willing to do the same."

Wally laughed, slightly breathlessly, "Thank God. You do not understand how nervous I was giving that whole little speech."

Dick laughed back, "I'm pretty sure I understand quite well." They both laughed again, reveling in the feeling that they were on the same page, that this was real. Dick's brow furrowed, "So, are we boyfriends now or do I have to wait until after the first date?"

"I thought we've already had our first date." Wally responded, a laugh in his voice.

"What?" Dick asked, genuinely confused, "When?"

"I told you a story and we fell asleep back to back with only a thin sheet of glass separating us!" Wally exclaimed.

Dick started immediately shaking his head, "No way. There is absolutely no way that our first date is going to be when I had literally kidnapped you and was detaining you without proper due process."

Wally grinned exuberantly, "So you admit to breaking the law? That's what I'm talking about. I knew I was the best kind of bad influence on you!"

"What? No!" Dick groaned, throwing his head in his hands, "That is so not what's going on!"

"Next thing you know, you'll be a villain. You can come to Central and join the Rogues. Add yourself to the growing collection of kids on the team." Wally gloated. Dick laughed.

They both calmed down and Dick said, "We should probably call Roy back. He must be freezing by now." Wally laughed and complied.

"Why on earth did you pick this place as our meeting place when you knew how cold it was out here?" Wally asked.

"I didn't know  _I_ was going to standing out there by myself! I thought it would just be Roy and that's perfectly fine if he freezes out there." Dick answered easily. He pulled himself in closer to Wally. There was still so much more they needed to talk about, normal relationship stuff and the kind of messes that only came with relationships that had to do with the superhero/supervillain world. For now, though he could be content listening to Roy make snide comments about him as Wally laughed more than Dick had ever heard him laugh before. For now, this was more than enough.

WWWWWW

Wally's eyes closed for a moment as he heard something crackle at the front of the alley he was in. He pushed himself off from the wall and slung the bag of loot he'd gotten off the ground, pulling it closer to himself. What was going on? He'd thought that they had it under control. The ginger stayed low to the ground and edged his head around the side of the dumpster to get a clearer look. Captain Cold and Icicle Jr. were standing in front of some frozen police officers. Wally knew that Cold was fond of lecturing people, but he hadn't expected him to be lecturing Icicle Jr. in the middle of the field during an important heist. Wally caught sight of what was in the hand that Cold wasn't using to hold his cold gun. It was the huge bag of cash from the bank. At least they'd gotten the cash before their leader had gotten his lecture on.

The ginger bit his lip slightly. He knew this was a bad idea. He could feel it in his bones that he shouldn't do what he was about to do. That didn't stop Wally though. Captain Cold was going to kill him for this, but at least the mission would be complete.

Wally made sure his cowl was still situated correctly, tugging it slightly further down his face. Within a second, he was off.

The young speedster couldn't help but laugh as he sped through the small street, quickly gaining speed and weaving around the frozen coppers. He ducked under Cold's gun, watching as the man ever so slowly turned to see Wally, but he was gone, already on his leader's other side and snatching the bag from his grip. Soon, he was speeding down the alley again. As he reached the spot he'd been leaning against, he slowed down and turned around.

He grinned at the two ice-themed villains, wiggling the bag in front of them. Icicle Jr. was trying to keep in a laugh, but Captain Cold was less amused. He had on a truly terrifying glare. Wally hung his head, already mentally berating himself for picking on Cold when he was already in a bad mood. What was he thinking teasing the man when his sister was in town?

Suddenly, Captain Cold was standing in front of him, grinning sharply. He leaned in and hissed, "You're not the Flash, kid. Don't think you're going to get away with this."

Wally, who apparently decided he wanted to get killed, responded quickly, "Aw, you love me too much for that! You'd miss me. It'd be a shame, really."

Cold's jaw tightened, and he fingered his gun lightly, easily getting his threat through to Wally, "I wouldn't mess with me, Momentum. I don't like being the mean parent and I don't like grounding you, but I can make an exception. Got it, kid?" He was glaring at Wally now, snatching the bag out of his hand.

"Not a kid!" Wally responded in a sing-song voice. Once again, not his best move.

Cold raised his arm and pinched his nose. He muttered under his breath, "You're lucky I'm feeling ever so slightly forgiving today. Come on, let's go."

A voice came over their comms, a distinctive Australian accent marking it as Captain Boomerang, " _What are you lot doing? Yer supposed to be back to the rendezvous spot by now._ "

"Captain Cold was lecturing me, so Momentum rescued me, and our leader turned his icy wrath on my rescuer." Icicle Jr. announced dramatically. Captain Cold turned his glare back onto the newest member to the team.

There was a laugh in Heatwave's voice when he asked, "Status, Momentum?"

Wally grinned, "Perfect."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ! PLEASE READ! PLEASE READ! Okay, so there is going to be an epilogue. Read at your own risk. The epilogue will be preparing you for the sequel which will not be posted until Young Justice Season 3 is out and I've watched it. The first chapter of the side story - which will be a story dedicated to the progression of Dick and Wally's relationship - will be posted in a few days. Thanks for reading!


	66. Epilogue

WWWWWW

Wally groaned with relief when Lucas Carr announced excitedly, "All twenty groups have disabled all twenty magnetic field disruptors. We did it!"

A smile lighting up his face, Wally pulled Nightwing into his arms, hugging him for all he was worth. For the most part, the Rogue speedster tried to stay out of the way of hero business, but this was more a matter of the survival of the earth. Rogues made it a point to help deal with stuff like that. The rest of the Rogues were spread out trying to help the people who were affected by the natural disasters that resulted from the MFDs.

Captain Atom's voice broke through their brief celebration, "Earth's magnetic field is still being disrupted, though. There's something wrong."

The Blue Beetle's voice spoke into the comms, voice tense and tired (Wally didn't know the kid, but he could relate), " _There's another MFD! It was hidden from my scans by Earth's magnetic field. It's in the North Poles and there aren't any zetas that go there._ "

Flash's response was immediate, " _I'll run there then._ "

Impulse's voice followed soon after, " _Not without me you don't. Squads of two, remember?_ " That Impulse kid kind of freaked Wally out with his excitable nature and his time traveling and his insistence on calling Wally his cousin. He was nice though. It burned a little bit that both him and the Flash were still faster than him, but Wally blamed that on his training. He was more focused on working with a team and learning different heist techniques than perfecting his speed. That had to be it.

Flash's voice broke him out his reverie, " _Flash to Watchtower. The MFD has already gone chrysalis._ " The room exchanged startled looks, Wally inching back towards the corner. It made him twitchy to be surrounded by this many heroes. Flash continued, " _I'm not sure if the egg-_ ,"

Luthor interrupted him, " _The egg is useless now._ " Wally felt his shoulders hunch, face setting into a scowl and hands clenching. Even the sound of Luthor's voice made his skin crawl. Luthor continued, " _You're too late._ "

"He's cheerful." Wally growled, hands shaking. Nightwing held one of his hands comfortingly.

" _What now?_ " Flash asked before Nightwing could say anything.

" _Now you run._ " Luthor responded calmly, still irritatingly unflappable.

Flash's voice was just as tense as Wally's was, obviously as frustrated with having to work with the Light as Wally, " _Hey, I'm no quitter. There's got to be another-,_ "

" _I didn't say run away. I said run. Together, you and Impulse should be able to negate the chrysalis by running opposite to its energy flow._ " Luthor sighed, obviously irritate with what he thought was the general stupidity of all people but himself.

Nightwing muttered quietly to Wally, "He's really getting on my nerves, interrupting Flash like that." Wally snorted bitterly.

Flash asked dubiously, " _Is it really that simple_?"

Luthor bit out, " _I wouldn't call it simple. You'll be attempting to siphon its power with your own speed trails. It will take a massive amount of kinetic energy._ " Wally could hear Flash and Impulse around running around the thing, doing the best they could.

It wouldn't be enough, though. Wally could feel it. There was something in him that just made it so he could  _tell_  that it wasn't going to be enough. They needed another speedster. He barely heard Nightwing calling after him as he rushed into the zeta beam.

Wally came out as close to Antarctica as he could, inwardly lamenting the capabilities of his suit. A space heater to Nightwing he may be, that didn't mean he could take Antarctica's weather in measly spandex. Ah well, too late for that now.

He heard Flash say in front of him, "It's definitely slowing, but not stopping. Even at our top speed, I'm not certain the two of us can generate enough kinetic energy."

Wally sped next to them, commenting cockily, "Then how about I help? I know, I know, having to be saved by your supervillain is embarrassing. Although, you must be used to it, Flash."

"Momentum," Flash laughed slightly, huffing out a sigh of relief, "Good man."

Impulse called out, "So crash!" Whatever  _that_  meant.

The two promptly sped up, leaving Wally behind in the dust.

Hissing under his breath, Wally muttered, "Seriously?" Then, he ran. It was all he could do. It was what he was best at. It was what made him a great villain, what found him his family.

Wally wasn't sure he even really noticed when the blasts of energy started. It was just a little jolt here and there for long moments. Nothing bad. Then, as they start to beat the thing, the blasts became strong, huge bolts that crashed into Wally, almost knocking him off his feet. He grunted when one hit him, knocking his breath out. It burned through him, feeling like the lightning the struck him that fateful day all those years ago.

"Bart, we need to slow down, try to siphon off some of the energy that's attacking Wally!" Flash yelled. Wally wondered why they even bothered with code names when they never actually used them.

Still, that didn't stop Wally from gasping, "It's no good Barry. Man, Nightwing is so going to kill me for this. And don't even get me started on the Rogues." He could feel himself fading. His skin tingled and his back twitched and he could literally see through his hand. This was it. This was how he died. As a  _hero_. That was certainly not the way he'd been planning.

"Kid!" Flash cried out, expression crumpling.

He couldn't stop it, though. None of them could. With the last of his energy, with the last vestiges of whatever part of him remained there, Wally gasped out, "Just tell them, okay?"

And then he was gone.


End file.
